Now that our Nincompoop in Chief has nominated a new Director of Central “Stan Turner’s comments on the 9\/11 report<\/FONT> <\/P> Turner, a former head of the CIA, doesn’t specifically address whether a new intelligence Another former head of the CIA, John Deutch, says that a cabinet-level appointment for a White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card has said the chairmen of the 9\/11 commission told
\nIntelligence<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> (DCI) to head the Central Intelligence Agency, here are some
\nwords of wisdom from a trustworthy mathematician friend who does top-secret work for the
\nDepartment of Defense and the American military:<\/P>
\n
\n<\/B><\/A>are worth reading. The following excerpt is (in my view) a persuasive argument for a
\nCabinet-level National Intelligence Director (NID)”:
\nA serious problem today, which the commission addresses nicely, is that the
\n1947 law did not give the DCI sufficient authority to ensure adequate exchange of data among the
\nagencies. It would take only an executive order from the president to give the DCI, or a new
\nNID, the authority to set the standards for classifying secret intelligence materials. Today, each of
\nthe heads of the 15 agencies can create classification categories so as to exclude other agencies
\nfrom their data. Some intelligence does deserve special treatment. But that should be decided by
\nthe NID\/DCI, who has the national interest in view, not someone with an agency’s
\nperspective.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>“The same thing is done in DoD and the Services,” my friend
\nwrites, “often by withholding a ‘need to know’ certification for individuals who have the necessary
\nclearance but might ask the wrong questions.”
\n
\n
\ndirector should have a Cabinet-level appointment. He does say, however, that “a close
\nrelationship with the president is a NID\/DCI’s lifeblood.”<\/P>
\n
\nnew national intelligence director “is no substitute<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> for properly
\naligning authority with responsibility.” <\/P>
\n
\nhim that they did not mean they wanted a new intelligence czar to be a member of the Cabinet.
\n“They recommended that it be Cabinet-level pay,” CNN quotes him<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> as saying.<\/P>
\n