Pincus, Walter. "National Intelligence Director Proves to Be Difficult Post to Fill: Uncertainties Over Role, Authority Are Blamed for Delays." Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2005, A4. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]Materials presented chronologically.
Pincus, Walter. "National Intelligence Director Proves to Be Difficult Post to Fill: Uncertainties Over Role, Authority Are Blamed for Delays." Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2005, A4. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"Six weeks after President Bush signed the intelligence bill calling for a new director of national intelligence, the White House is still looking for what the president told reporters last week is 'the right person to handle this very sensitive position.' ... Within the intelligence community and on Capitol Hill, officials say they believe the delay stems at least partly from continuing uncertainty over what real power and authority the new director will have."
Fletcher, Michael A., and Walter Pincus. "Negroponte Named National Intelligence Chief: Ambassador to Iraq Would Oversee Nation's 15 Spy Agencies." Washington Post, 18 Feb. 2005, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 17 February 2005, President Bush nominated U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John D. Negroponte "to be director of national intelligence." The President also "named Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, head of the National Security Agency,... to be Negroponte's deputy."
Jehl, Douglas, and Elisabeth Bumiller. "Bush Picks Longtime Diplomat for New Top Intelligence Job." New York Times, 18 Feb. 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com]
President Bush on 17 February 2005 nominated John D. Negroponte to be director of national intelligence. The president chose Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden as Negroponte's top deputy. General Hayden "is expected to play a central role as a referee of competing military and civilian intelligence agencies and in exerting the director's authority over programs managed by the Pentagon."
Priest, Dana, and Robin Wright. "Relationship With Bush Will Be Key: Negroponte Needs President's Support as He Negotiates Agencies' Bureaucracy." Washington Post, 18 Feb. 2005, A8. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
When he takes over as the nation's first intelligence czar, John D. Negroponte's "mission is to tame and unify a sprawling 15-agency intelligence bureaucracy." At the same time, he is stepping "into the job without clear guidance on how to implement" the new intelligence law.
Shane, Scott. "The Thinking Man's Spy: Michael Vincent Hayden." New York Times, 18 Feb. 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com]
In six years as NSA chief, Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden "has mastered the technical wizardry of information-age spying, proved skillful in maneuvering for the agency's share of the Pentagon's annual intelligence budget, won powerful allies at the White House and on Capitol Hill, and forged ties with officials throughout the American intelligence archipelago." At NSA, General Hayden has been "a tough agent of change." According to current and former intelligence officials, "[h]e forced a rapid turnover in personnel as the agency belatedly adjusted to post-cold-war targets, replacing Russian with Arabic linguists, and took on such technological challenges as tapping into fiber-optic cable and breaking computerized encryption."
Pincus, Walter. "CIA to Cede President's Brief to Negroponte: White House Decision Seen as Signal to Intelligence Community on New Post." Washington Post, 19 Feb. 2005, A15. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
President Bush's Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. said on 18 February 2005 that "[t]he White House has decided that the new director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, will take over from CIA Director Porter J. Goss the responsibility for producing the intelligence material given to President Bush each morning.... The President's Daily Brief (PDB) ... provides the foundation for the 30-minute national security briefing that starts Bush's day."
Eisenberg, Daniel. "Bush's New Intelligence Czar." Time, 21 Feb. 2005, 32-35.
Given the vagueness of the legislation that established the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), John Negroponte's "ultimate authority over the nation's" intelligence apparatus, "including an estimated $40 billion annual budget,... is an open question."
Jehl, Douglas. "Nominee Vows Tighter Control of Intelligence." New York Times, 13 Apr. 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com]
John D. Negroponte, President Bush's nominee for director of national intelligence, promised on 12 April 2005 "to bring 'fundamental change' to the broad array of agencies he would oversee.... [He] vowed to a Senate panel to 'push the envelope' in asserting his authorities in a new job whose powers remain ambiguous."
Priest, Dana, and Walter Pincus. "Negroponte Stresses 'Mandate' for Change." Washington Post, 13 Apr. 2005, A4. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
John D. Negroponte, President Bush's nominee for director of national intelligence, told the Senate intelligence committee during his three-hour confirmation hearing on 12 April 2005 that "he is determined to use his new authority to make the 15 intelligence agencies cooperate fully with one another."
Pincus, Walter. "Nominations of Negroponte, Deputy Backed: Intelligence Panel's Approval Clears Way For Vote by Senate." Washington Post, 15 Apr. 2005, A6. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 14 April 2005, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence "approved the nominations of Ambassador John D. Negroponte as the nation's first director of national intelligence and Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden as deputy director and sent their names to the Senate for a vote."
Shane, Scott. "Negroponte Confirmed as Director of National Intelligence." New York Times, 22 Apr. 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com]
On 21 April 2005, by a vote of 98 to 2, the U.S. "Senate confirmed John D. Negroponte ... as the country's first director of national intelligence." Key senators urgied Negroponte "to assert his power quickly over the nation's 15 spy agencies, improve their sharing of information and upgrade their intelligence collection on terrorism and other threats....
"Michael V. Hayden, director of the National Security Agency for the last six years, was confirmed as principal deputy director of national intelligence. The Senate also approved his promotion from an Air Force lieutenant general to full general."
Negroponte and Hayden "are to preside over a staff of more than 500 people." On 15 April 2005, President Bush "named John Russack, the Energy Department's intelligence chief," as program manager, in which position "he will oversee information-sharing by the intelligence agencies."
Shrader, Katherine. "Negroponte Takes Over Daily Bush Briefings." Associated Press, 29 Apr. 2005. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 27 April 2005, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte "stepped into the Oval Office ... to present President Bush with his classified daily intelligence briefing." The meeting "underscored that the White House is not immediately heeding the advice of a blue-ribbon presidential commission on intelligence, which recommended last month that someone other than Negroponte brief the president each day."
Burger, Timothy J., and Brian Bennett. "Negroponte's First Test?" Time, 29 Apr. 2005. [http://www.time.com]
DNI John Negroponte "already has a major shouting match between the FBI and CIA to referee. The disagreement is about human spies -- who's in charge of recruiting them inside the U.S. and then handling them abroad against terrorists and foreign governments."
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