[Peace-discuss] Obama to create domestic intelligence agency?

[C. G. Estabrook]

"In addition to stepping up efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan ... the Obama 
team is weighing whether to propose the creation of a domestic intelligence 
agency..."

	Obama Selects Blair as Director of National Intelligence
	
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair
to be his top spymaster, indicating his preference for a strong
military manager to fill the most senior intelligence post, according
to people close to the transition.

Mr. Obama is still weighing options for director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, and Mr. Blair is expected to advise in that
selection, further cementing the intelligence director's role as the
chief of all 16 intelligence agencies.

Choosing Mr. Blair may reignite long-simmering tensions between
military and civilian intelligence officials. "It's controversial from
those within the intelligence community," one former top intelligence
official said.

If confirmed, Mr. Blair would succeed another retired Navy admiral,
Mike McConnell, to become the third director of national intelligence
since Congress created the post four years ago. Mr. Obama has said he
would prefer that the intelligence director serve longer terms to
depoliticize the post, like the Federal Bureau of Investigation
director, who serves up to two five-year terms.

Mr. Blair would inherit an unfinished intelligence overhaul in which
power battles continue, particularly between the intelligence
director's office and the CIA, intelligence officials say.

In addition to stepping up efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr.
Obama wants to tackle some of the tougher intelligence issues that the
Bush administration hasn't resolved. Two former intelligence officials
said the Obama team is weighing whether to propose the creation of a
domestic intelligence agency. Another idea under study is creating a
White House office to handle cybersecurity, a growing national-
security problem.

A former commander of the military's forces in the Pacific who served
34 years in the Navy, Mr. Blair did one tour as the CIA's military
liaison in the mid-1990s. That experience will provide important
perspective in overseeing the CIA and other intelligence agencies, say
those who have worked with Mr. Blair. He has advised Mr. Obama
occasionally in the Senate, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford
University with Bill Clinton.

With a reputation as a brainy straight-shooter, Mr. Blair is free of
the baggage from controversial spy programs such as the CIA
interrogation program and the National Security Agency's warrantless
surveillance.

But in the confirmation process he will likely be asked to explain a
Pentagon inspector general's finding that he violated conflict-of-
interest standards.

As president of the Institute for Defense Analyses, Mr. Blair was
involved with a study of a contract for the F-22 fighter jet while
sitting on the board of a subcontractor on that program, EDO Corp. The
inspector general found in a 2006 report that Mr. Blair violated the
institute's conflict-of-interest standards but didn't influence the
outcome for the study. IDA is a nonprofit corporation that administers
federal research programs. Mr. Blair was forced to resign from IDA
over the matter and he also stepped down from the EDO board.

Mr. Blair currently serves in a senior analytic post at the National
Bureau of Asian Research, where he recently published a study of
military powers in Asia and their relations to the U.S. He is on the
board of directors at Tyco International and at Iridium Satellite, a
Maryland-based satellite company.

The CIA director post remains to be filled. Former CIA official John
O. Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran, was originally seen as a likely
choice to head the CIA, but he withdrew his name in the face of
liberal backlash. Some liberal Democrats said Mr. Brennan bore some
responsibility for the CIA's detention program, which used simulated
drowning called waterboarding in interrogations and was widely seen as
a form of torture. He said he argued against such interrogation tactics.

New names for CIA director have surfaced in recent weeks, including
deputy CIA director Steven R. Kappes, former CIA analysis chief John
Gannon, and former CIA operations chief Jack Devine. Some lawmakers
have also asked Mr. Obama to reconsider Mr. Brennan. Mr. Obama could
also choose to retain current CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, though
several people close to the transition say that's unlikely.

	--By SIOBHAN GORMAN

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