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-- N A T I O N A L   I N T E L L I G E N C E    A F F A I R S --
  
    

   DID THE U.S.A. MOVE TOO FAST IN REFORMING THE INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM?

             -- five Commissions at a cost of $350 MILLION over a ten year period is too fast!!

             -- read this brief sidebar and you will understand the mindset of politicians 

                inside the Beltway!

             -- even today -- May 20, 2005 -- nothing has been done except hiring new staff!

             --  will career staff people be transferred to the new NID Office?

             -- or will Staff Analysts be dumped for reporting the Truth?

  HOW IS THE NEW CONGRESS RESPONDING TO THE 9-11 INTELLIGENCE REPORT?

                  -- Liberals demand Patriot Act be scrapped!
 

          BUSH NAMES FIRST  DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
    
  FLASH: April 5th -- Negreponte NOT confirmed yet! (Hearings begin 4-12-05)

  FLASH:  APRIL 21,2005  Negreponte is approved by Senate. President

             appointed him head of the New National Intelligence Office.

      -- Negroponte of U.S. Diplomatic Corps accepts new challenge pending Senate confirmation.

       -- Lt. General Hagee named Deputy Director. 

       -- President's unique view of new function revealed in  these nominations'

      -- National Intelligence will be led by Military and State Dept. people!

       -- Negroponte-Hagee combo viewed with approval by experts.


Saturday APRIL 25, 2005 

WILL NEGREPONTE THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATH WATER?

   National Intelligence Director takes command of a new and more powerful Federal Office this week.  The new NID is from the State Department and it is predictable that he will bring his own cadre of staff personnel from the State department, a practice used by most who assume high office in Washington.

But what will the new NID do with more than a hundred professional Federal employees who make up the Corporate entity that has operated under the CIA Director? That Corporate group was intimately involved with the coordination of the fifteen departments that compose the Nation's  Intelligence Community. It is that group of specialists who have known and experienced the intrigues and lack of inter-agency cooperation but could do nothing about it.

In Washington, it is a well-known fact that President Bush was an unwilling party to the creation of the 9-11 Commission, preferring to appoint his own investigative team to learn what really happened on September 11, 2001. Obviously, Bush has good reason to believe that professional CIA people -- no doubt Democrats -- contrived to feed him the Weapons of Mass Destruction story which appears at this moment to have been untrue.  Given that dastardly act. Bush can be expected to trust no one previously connected with the Central Intelligence Agency at Langley, VA. The appointment of John Negroponte and General Hagee proves the Bush strategy of distrust. Such a sense of distrust is perfectly understandable inside The Beltway!

If this distrust is part of Bush's continuing mindset, how Negroponte selects his key staff people will tell the story about the effectiveness of the new NID Office. In other words, will valuable, long-serving Intelligence people be shunted into other Federal jobs where their expertise will no longer serve the country. That could happen! In Washington,  that practice is called  "throwing the Baby out with the Bath Water!" 

BEJO TRACKING of these developments at the NID Office will be recorded here.

1. 4/30/05:  Review of résumé's continue as manpower/ organization

                   charts are developed.
2. 5/7/05:   NID announces that the new  Intel Office will involve 500 to

                   1,000 personnel!

3. 5/14/05:  Nothing new as staff assignments are mulled over.
4. 5/21/05:  Announcements of key positions pending.
5. 5/28/05:  Organization and staffing work continues.

6. 6/28/05:  Staffing, transfers and and hiring continues with clearances

                    taking  considerable time.                 

7. 7/28/05:  Key positions pending as new agency / office nears                  

                    completion probably not before November.   
  

8. 7/20/06   The new National Intelligence Director function, headed up by former

                    career diplomat, John Negroponte, has not begun to operate as a

                    new organization. This confirms BEJO's original impression of how a

                    career diplomat would organize such a new department. He has

                    already lost or dumped all the previous staff and experts who have

                    the background and knowledge of the Intelligence activity -- a

                    valuable resource, presumably!

01/10/07      In a reshuffle of appointments, President Bush has assigned John

                    Negreponte back to The State Department! Diplomats are not

                    "doers",  they Think, Talk and Write but they become frightened when

                    they have to do something and take some kind of ACTION!