<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/politics/13intel.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print&position=>
The New York Times April 13, 2005 Nominee Vows Tighter Control of Intelligence By DOUGLAS JEHL ASHINGTON, April 12 - John D. Negroponte, nominated as the first director of national intelligence, promised Tuesday to bring "fundamental change" to the broad array of agencies he would oversee, and he said the American people were right to "expect more" after recent intelligence failures. Mr. Negroponte vowed to a Senate panel to "push the envelope" in asserting his authorities in a new job whose powers remain ambiguous. In an expansive interpretation of the law that created the post, Mr. Negroponte made clear that he expected the Central Intelligence Agency, until now pre-eminent, to report to him, and said he was determined to assert significant control over the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and other entities that will remain part of the Pentagon. Mr. Negroponte said he was also determined to transcend the divide that contributed to conflicts among the missions overseen by the C.I.A., the Pentagon and the Justice Department. "In the past four years, our homeland has been attacked, and we have miscalculated the arsenal, if not the intent, of a dangerous adversary," Mr. Negroponte said, in pointing to intelligence failures on terrorism and Iraq. "Our intelligence effort has to generate better results - that's my mandate, plain and simple." Mr. Negroponte's statements, to the Senate intelligence committee, provided the first indications of his plans for the new job, and they were greeted with enthusiasm by Democrats as well as Republicans on the panel, who said that he faced an enormous task in defining a new role, and expressed concern that his power under the law might remain too limited. "We have a broken system," said Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who is the committee's chairman, "and you have to fix that, and to do that, you need authority." A 40-year veteran of government service, Mr. Negroponte speaks five languages fluently and had won Senate confirmation for seven previous posts, including five ambassadorships. He was ambassador to Iraq in February, when President Bush chose him for the new intelligence job. Several senators on the 15-member committee praised Mr. Negroponte as one of the most distinguished public servants of his generation. Only one Democrat on the panel, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, indicated Tuesday that he might oppose the nomination. There appeared to be no other obstacle to Mr. Negroponte's confirmation. The public hearing on Tuesday was adjourned after three hours of questioning, and the committee and the full Senate were expected swiftly and overwhelmingly to endorse the nomination, perhaps by the end of the week. Mr. Negroponte assured the panel that he would provide Mr. Bush and other policymakers straightforward intelligence assessments, including "being more specific about what we do not know." Asked by one senator for a crisp statement of his approach, he replied: "My punch line is, I believe in calling things the way I see them. And I believe that the president deserves from his director of national intelligence, and from the intelligence community, unvarnished truth." Among the main areas in need of better understanding and an effort to collect more and better intelligence, Mr. Negroponte identified plans by North Korea and Iran to build nuclear arsenals and the nature of the anti-American insurgency in Iraq. The mistakes made in overstating Iraq's weapons capabilities have prompted intelligence agencies to become "more cautious" in their assessments about other countries' arsenals, he said. But Mr. Negroponte did not dispute an alternative version offered by Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, who said the effect of such caution had been to produce intelligence products that were "more accurate, but not more illuminating." >From 1981 to 1985, Mr. Negroponte was the ambassador to Honduras. His tenure there has long been a focus for criticism from opponents who contend that in supporting the Reagan administration's policies in South America Mr. Negroponte turned a blind eye to human rights abuses by death squads trained and partly financed by the C.I.A. Mr. Negroponte's appearance before the Senate coincided with a report in The Washington Post that was based on newly declassified cables he had sent to Washington at the time. The report prompted Senator Wyden to suggest that Mr. Negroponte had been "ducking the facts," and "saw things through an administration-colored lens." But Mr. Negroponte defended his conduct, saying that everything he did was within the law and that previous inquiries by the Senate and other investigators had absolved him of wrongdoing. In response to questions about his specific plans as intelligence chief, Mr. Negroponte said several times that he could not be precise. He said he had returned from Iraq two weeks ago, and that he and the White House had only begun to review recommendations issued last month by the presidential commission on illicit weapons, many of which focused on how the new job should be structured. But he did lay down markers in several areas, making clear for the first time, for example, that he would take responsibility for notifying Congress about covert actions being carried out by the C.I.A. He said several times that the director of central intelligence, Porter J. Goss, would report to him in the new structure and that he expected to exercise at least "strategic" oversight over the role played by the agency in the detention, interrogation and transfer of suspected terrorists from one country to another. Mr. Negroponte acknowledged what he called "appalling abuses" committed by American military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, but he said he was less familiar with abuses committed elsewhere, including those being reviewed by a C.I.A. internal investigator. He did promise that all practices used by the C.I.A. and other agencies would be in "full compliance" with the law, which prohibits the use of torture. Mr. Negroponte said of torture, "I don't think it's an effective way of producing useful information." The creation of Mr. Negroponte's job has contributed to apprehension within many intelligence agencies, particularly those controlled by the Pentagon, which account for 80 percent of the country's intelligence budget, estimated at about $40 billion. Until now, the Pentagon agencies have been oriented primarily to serving the needs of the military. In a memorandum to subordinates last month, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld designated Stephen A. Cambone, the under secretary of defense for intelligence, as the department's point of contact in dealing with the new intelligence chief. Questioned about that memorandum on Tuesday, Mr. Negroponte said that he had consulted with Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cambone, and that he planned to maintain frequent contacts. But Mr. Negroponte also said he intended to have direct dealings with the Pentagon intelligence agencies, even though his legal authority is limited to his role in determining their budgets. "I will seek to make the fullest possible use of these authorities," Mr. Negroponte said. He said that he believed that the terms of the law "in no way will preclude my ability to deal directly with such agencies as the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and so forth." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. 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