National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair to Resign

[BMT (RIP)]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...air-resigning/

BEEP-BEEP here comes the bus!!


BMT

[MtnGoat]

Originally Posted by BMT

BEEP-BEEP here comes the bus!!

Now that is FUNNY!!!

[MtnGoat]

The one thing I would really like to know is Janet Napolitano made of Teflon? So if Mr. Blair steps down. Why does she stay??

So what is it with Obama's cabinet? Can we just call them a bunch of quitters? He's had like 10 top officials quit so far.

Well, will America get out and Vote in NOV?? NO just sit on the sidelines and BITCH!!!

[BrainStorm]

Speaking truth to power has it's price.

[orion5]

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

[incarcerated]

Blair was probably asked to step down in order to make room for Anthony Lake or Sandy Berger.

[alright4u]

Originally Posted by incarcerated

Blair was probably asked to step down in order to make room for Anthony Lake or Sandy Berger.

Who can obtain a TS in this admin without a valium?

[The Reaper]

I believe that he was chafing, along with Panetta, at being subordinated to AG Holder.

TR

[BrainStorm]

Dennis Blair -- A Good Man In the Wrong Job

Originally Posted by Judith Miller

Dennis Blair was lauded for being the consumate public servant but he remained the odd man out in the Obama administration.

Congress loved him. A Rhodes Scholar brain with military bearing. A fitness fanatic, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair presented well on Capitol Hill. Peter King, the New York Republican who has fought so hard to toughen homeland defenses, praised Blair's dedication to the job. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence committee, called him a "consumate public servant."

But he was, as Peter King observed, the "odd man out," or as another colleague called him, a good man in the wrong job. There were one too many turf fights. One too many bureaucratic battles lost for lack of White House support or just picked badly and lost.

John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, increasingly made intelligence policy from the White House. CIA Director Leon Panetta sliced him up again and again. Attorney General Eric Holder, close to Obama, muzzled him, too. Even DHS chief Janet Napolitano testified on issues that Blair would normally have weighed in on. He was, as King called him, "not an insider. Not one of them."

Early reports suggest that he may be replaced by James Clapper Jr., a retired Air Force lieutenant general and the Defense Department's top intelligence officer, or possibly even by Brennan. Rep. King warns that Brennan would mean a tough confirmation battle.

Judith Miller is a writer, Manhattan Institute Scholar and Fox News contributor.

[BrainStorm]

Intelligence Director Knew His Days Were Numbered

Originally Posted by Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- For months, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair has been a dead man walking -- and he knew it. So constant and vicious were the leaks from the White House and Congress of his imminent departure that he opened a recent speech on intelligence reform with a joke that his replacement would be Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb.

The crowd's laughter was just a little uncomfortable, as Blair himself spotlighted the elephant in the room by suggesting that even the just-traded NFL star was being mentioned to fill the job.

Everyone seemed to know this just wasn't working.

His 16-month tenure had been studded with public intelligence failures, turf wars and that uniquely inside-the-Beltway ritual humiliation via leaks to the press.

Blair's official decision to step down came Thursday after an Oval office meeting with President Barack Obama, according to two senior congressional staffers. They said it became clear by the end of the meeting that Blair had "lost the confidence of the president."

In a message to his work force, Blair said his last day would be May 28.

"It is with deep regret that I informed the president today that I will step down as director of national intelligence," Blair said.

Obama released a brief statement Thursday night that did not acknowledge Blair's impending resignation.

"During his time as DNI, our intelligence community has performed admirably and effectively at a time of great challenges to our security, and I have valued his sense of purpose and patriotism," the president said. "He and I both share a deep admiration for the men and women of our intelligence community, who are performing extraordinary and indispensable service to our nation."

Blair, a retired Navy admiral, is the third director of national intelligence, a position created in response to the failure to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

His departure highlights the continuing disarray and competition among the disparate elements of the intelligence community -- the very same issues the 9/11 Commission identified and that the national intelligence director was supposed to make a thing of the past.

Two other government officials said several candidates already had been interviewed for the DNI job, which is to oversee the nation's 16 intelligence agencies.

Names mentioned as possible candidates include current top White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and James R. Clapper, the defense undersecretary for intelligence.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Blair's term in office was marred by turf battles with CIA Director Leon Panetta and Blair's own controversial public comments after the failed Christmas Day jetliner bombing attempt.

The two congressional officials said Blair had been on a losing streak since he squared off with Panetta last May over Blair's effort to choose a personal representative at U.S. embassies to be his eyes and ears abroad, instead of relying on CIA station chiefs, as had been the practice.

Blair issued a directive declaring his intention to select his own representatives overseas. Panetta followed up shortly thereafter with a note telling agency employees that station chiefs were still in charge -- a move that some construed as insubordinate and a blow to Blair's authority.

The White House did nothing to back Blair over Panetta, which sent a message to the rest of the intelligence community that Blair could be ignored, according to one senior congressional staffer. Worse, the skirmish ended up costing Blair the support of Brennan, who resented being forced to mediate, according to another staffer familiar with the issue.

In the failed Christmas Day attack, the Senate Intelligence Committee found that the National Counterterrorism Center was in a position to connect intelligence that could have prevented it. As director of national intelligence, Blair oversaw the center.

One senior Senate staffer said it was apparent Blair had been kept on the periphery of the FBI's investigation into the Nigerian suspect in the attempted plane bombing, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Blair's later testimony before Congress did not endear him to the White House, the officials said, when he acknowledged that an elite interrogation team known as the High-Value Interrogation Group had not been deployed to question Abdulmutallab. Blair may have further damaged himself by admitting that he had not been consulted on whether the HIG unit should have been used.

The HIG team was deployed after the Times Square bombing attempt this month, administration officials said this week.

Blair also told Congress that Abdulmutallab continued to provide helpful information to investigators at a time when authorities had hoped to keep the bomber's cooperation secret. With that information divulged, FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed at the same hearing that Abdulmutallab was cooperating.

Blair was the first Obama administration official to describe the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, last fall as an act of homegrown extremism. The administration had previously been reluctant to call the suspect, an Army psychiatrist, a homegrown terrorist or extremist.

By law, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, David Gompert, becomes the acting director until the Senate confirms the president's nominee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, called Blair a consummate public servant.

"I had high hopes for his willingness to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis to ensure that America's intelligence professional had the tools, resources and authorities they need to help protect our homeland," Hoekstra said Thursday.

Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the Obama administration for not keeping them in the loop on key intelligence matters, often singling out Brennan as being too secretive.

[T-Rock]

Will our POTUS replace Blair with someone who refers to Jerusalem as “al-Quds”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...-brennan-blair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VQbAhqHoAo

[Green Light]

Originally Posted by T-Rock

Will our POTUS replace Blair with someone who refers to Jerusalem as “al-Quds”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...-brennan-blair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VQbAhqHoAo

Yeah, saw that. Any doubt who butters their bread?

[incarcerated]

Originally Posted by alright4u

Who can obtain a TS in this admin without a valium?

That is not a problem. The Administration will be happy to provide the successful candidate with adequate quantities of Valium.

[Gypsy]

I think Charles Krauthammer hit the nail on the head...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,593335,00.html

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: I think one of the reasons he was let go was what we saw in video that you just showed. I'll give the background on that. Remember when Abdulmutallab was captured in Detroit for trying to blow up the airplane, he was questioned for less than an hour and then he got his Miranda rights, and he said nothing for over a month. After that, the family arrived and he started talking.

At that point the administration began leaking a lot of information as a way to undo political damage because they had taken a lot of attacks in the month when he wasn't saying anything for actually mirandizing him and losing potentially important information about terrorists he was with in Yemen.

So once he started talking there were all kind of stories about connections with Yemen, et cetera. What you heard Blair talking about was how displayed he was by all those leaks, because if you are in intelligence and you are getting all this information, you don't want it publicized in the way the enemies in Yemen will hear about it and take measures, hiding, running away, or whatever.

So this was a fairly strong attack on the White House for using intelligence as a way to tar up the political position, which had been damaged by the mirandizing issue and to actually jeopardize American national security.

Even though he said it in fractured syntax, it was a strong message and I think it hurt his standing inside the White House. I can understand why a president would be offended and want to fire him over that.