DON'T ASK

Now that our Nincompoop in Chief has nominated a new Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to head the Central Intelligence Agency, here are some words of wisdom from a trustworthy mathematician friend who does top-secret work for the Department of Defense and the American military:

"Stan Turner's comments on the 9/11 report are worth reading. The following excerpt is (in my view) a persuasive argument for a Cabinet-level National Intelligence Director (NID)":

A serious problem today, which the commission addresses nicely, is that the 1947 law did not give the DCI sufficient authority to ensure adequate exchange of data among the agencies. It would take only an executive order from the president to give the DCI, or a new NID, the authority to set the standards for classifying secret intelligence materials. Today, each of the heads of the 15 agencies can create classification categories so as to exclude other agencies from their data. Some intelligence does deserve special treatment. But that should be decided by the NID/DCI, who has the national interest in view, not someone with an agency's perspective.

Turner, a former head of the CIA, doesn't specifically address whether a new intelligence director should have a Cabinet-level appointment. He does say, however, that "a close relationship with the president is a NID/DCI's lifeblood."

Another former head of the CIA, John Deutch, says that a cabinet-level appointment for a new national intelligence director "is no substitute for properly aligning authority with responsibility."

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card has said the chairmen of the 9/11 commission told him that they did not mean they wanted a new intelligence czar to be a member of the Cabinet. "They recommended that it be Cabinet-level pay," CNN quotes him as saying.

In any case, our Nincompoop in Chief has already made it clear he has no intention of making a Cabinet-level appointment. "Bush's NID is strictly advisory in nature, with no Cabinet slot, no office in the West Wing, no authority over priorities, personnel, or budgets," Fred Kaplan has pointed out in Slate. "It's worse than useless; whoever takes the job can expect nothing more than glorified paper-pushing." But given the nincompoop's U-turns on just about every major decision he's made so far, that may not be the last word.