President Obama brought some true heavyweights into his national security team....Clinton at State, Gates at Defense, Panetta at CIA, Blair at DNI, and Jones at NSC. Each of them is a power center in his or her own right, and that is as it should be.
David Ignatius lays out a dust-up in progress now between Panetta and Blair, over who will appoint the CIA Station Chiefs around the world. I've never been a fan of the Director of National Intelligence (Blair) position...the goal of bringing the intelligence agencies under unified management was a good one...but the role of DNI ought never be severed from the role of Director of the CIA.
This issue strikes me as a manhood issue more than anything else. Ignatius is right, this is Panetta's call.
The reason they have a Director of Central Intelligence is to run the company.
ReplyDeleteBlair's job is to coordinate among CIA,NSA, DIA etal.
"Ishmael Jones" over at the NRO has a slightly different take...
ReplyDeletehttp://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmY4ODcwZTk2MjkyNDkyOGUxNTNhNjZlYjE4NDc5MzU=