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| President Obama To Replace Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair | |
| 2010-05-21 | |
For several weeks President Obama has been holding serious conversations about whether to ask Blair to step down and has interviewed candidates to replace him. After a discussion this afternoon between the president and Blair in the Oval Office about the best way forward, Blair offered to resign and the president said he would accept, sources told ABC News. Multiple administration sources tell ABC News that Blair's tenure internally has been a rocky one. On the heels of a number of intelligence failures involving the Fort Hood shooter, failed Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouq Abdulmuttalab, and questions about failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, it was no longer clear that Blair -- tasked with coordinating the 16 intelligence agencies and ensuring that they cooperate and share information -- still had the full and complete confidence of the president, sources say. The news will not come as a surprise to those in the intelligence community. For months, Blair has turf battles while the White House made it clear that it had more confidence in others, such as counterterrorism and homeland security adviser John Brennan, taking the lead both publicly and privately. Last November, the White House sided with CIA director Leon Panetta when Blair attempted, against Panetta's wishes, to pick the chief U.S. intelligence officer in each country, a job that traditionally has gone to the CIA station chief. At other points, Blair seemed simply out of the loop. In hearings looking into failed Christmas Day bomber Abdulmuttalab, Blair seemed unaware that the High-Value interrogation Group was not yet operational. He later walked back his statement. Just this week -- after a scathing report on intelligence failures and Abdulmuttalab by the Senate Intelligence Committee -- Blair acknowledged in a statement that "institutional and technological barriers remain that prevent seamless sharing of information." The Senate Committee report was a strong message of disapproval of the job being done by Blair and the National Counterterrorism Center. Blair also noted some improvements to the National Counterterrorism Center, which he supervises, which now has a unit "to thoroughly and exhaustively pursue terrorist threat threads, including identifying appropriate follow-up actions by other intelligence and law enforcement organizations." | |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #13 If hostile foreign agents seized control of the US government, just would they do differently than President Obama? One gets the impression that has already happened! |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-05-21 12:40 |
| #12 Smart money says the cynical political ploy would be to replace Blair w/a nominal Republican (Chuck Hagel) so that when the next attack succeeds the blame will be shifted. That of course assumes that cynical politics trumps national security. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2010-05-21 12:11 |
| #11 Pete Hoekstra: Right now, the Obama administration’s national security apparatus is broken, dysfunctional and in disarray. Dennis Blair was the one person you could count on for rationality among Holder, Napolitano and Brennan—and he’s the one the president let go. |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2010-05-21 10:51 |
| #10 Just a few words for the Admiral and all the other sychophantic, servile, self-serving, PC flag officers out there. "The boot you lick is the boot that KICKS!"anon |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-05-21 07:11 |
| #9 fwiw, Admiral Blair was the fellow clueless enough to try to get Chas Freeman (a favorite of the Saudi and PRChina dictators and font of anti Israel agiprop) appointed chair of the Nat Intel Council. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2010-05-21 07:00 |
| #8 If hostile foreign agents seized control of the US government, just would they do differently than President Obama? Not marry Michelle? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-05-21 02:35 |
| #7 If hostile foreign agents seized control of the US government, just would they do differently than President Obama? Good q. There are times I wake up and think, Is it over yet? Will our elected leaders finally begin to favor friends and punish foes, instead of v-v? Who is this fool in the White House, and how on earth did he get there, again? When will we be able to respect our country again? 2012 can't come fast enough. This little jack@ss is worse than Carter. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-05-21 01:45 |
| #6 STATEMENT FROM DIRECTOR DENNIS C. BLAIR TO THE ODNI AND INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY WORKFORCE > May 20, 2010 > > It is with deep regret that I informed the President today that I will step down as Director of National Intelligence effective Friday, May 28th. > > I have had no greater honor or pleasure than to lead the remarkably talented and patriotic men and women of the Intelligence Community. > > Every day, you have worked tirelessly to provide intelligence support for two wars and to prevent an attack on our homeland. > > You are true heroes, just like the members of the Armed Forces, firefighters, and police whose job it is to keep our nation safe. > > Your work over the past 16 months has made the Intelligence Community more integrated, agile, and representative of American values. Keep it up – I will be cheering for you. > > Dennis C. Blair |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-05-20 22:41 |
| #5 Blair wasn't a very good choice for DNI, but I share the concerns that his replacement will be worse, particularly if it's Brennan. DNI is an impossible job: you have to get 16 different intel agencies, each with their own agendas, resources, personnel and turf, to cooperate. Succeed only 99% of the time and everyone will remember the time you failed. My money on his replacement is Panetta, but if Panetta is as smart as he thinks he is, he'll say no. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-20 19:43 |
| #4 Brennan should go but this sounds like he may be the favored replacement! What a cluster fuck. I shouldn't be surprised if John "Bend over for islamic terrorism and maybe they will kill us last" Brennan is promoted. Blair was needed to lend some credibility to Candidate Obama's national security cred. Now the idiot is no longer useful and time to bring a member of the inner party to the forefront. If hostile foreign agents seized control of the US government, just would they do differently than President Obama? |
| Posted by: ed 2010-05-20 19:39 |
| #3 Thrown under the bus. He and 0bammy didn't see eye to eye at all. |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2010-05-20 19:32 |
| #2 I'm not thrilled with Blair, but I do wonder whether his failings are his own, or if he is just one more being thrown under the bus over Obama's failings. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-05-20 19:07 |
| #1 I heard Blair's resignation was requested and met with resistance. Brennan should go but this sounds like he may be the favored replacement! Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.... |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2010-05-20 19:06 |