5.22.2005
Building a Better Spy (NYTimes.com)
By RICHARD A. CLARKE
Published: May 22, 2005
Dear John:
You have been in office as the first director of national intelligence for about a month now. Wishing you were back in Baghdad? I understand. The law that created your job was filled with compromises designed to satisfy Don Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's backers in Congress. As a result, the law is, to be charitable, ambiguous about your authority over Defense Department intelligence agencies and the F.B.I.
You have always been a team player, not a rock-the-boat kind of guy. But this is your last job in government, John, so why not go for it? In fact, unless you clarify those ambiguities to make clear the director of national intelligence has real authority, you will have been a failure. Right now, America cannot afford for you to fail. So although it is against your personal style, pick some fights. And win them. Here are a few ideas on things worth fighting for.
(More ... Building a Better Spy - New York Times) ¶ 16:05
Published: May 22, 2005
Dear John:
You have been in office as the first director of national intelligence for about a month now. Wishing you were back in Baghdad? I understand. The law that created your job was filled with compromises designed to satisfy Don Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's backers in Congress. As a result, the law is, to be charitable, ambiguous about your authority over Defense Department intelligence agencies and the F.B.I.
You have always been a team player, not a rock-the-boat kind of guy. But this is your last job in government, John, so why not go for it? In fact, unless you clarify those ambiguities to make clear the director of national intelligence has real authority, you will have been a failure. Right now, America cannot afford for you to fail. So although it is against your personal style, pick some fights. And win them. Here are a few ideas on things worth fighting for.
(More ... Building a Better Spy - New York Times) ¶ 16:05
