Director of National Intelligence Blair fired

[Balta1701]

ABC News has learned that President Obama will replace the Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair (ret.) His resignation will come as soon as tomorrow, sources tell ABC News.

 

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 on a secure phone line 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.

 

One official tells ABC News that President Obama sought Blair’s resignation earlier this week, but Blair pushed back, hoping to convince the president to change his mind.

 

That did not happen.

 

The official says that there were high-profile problems on Blair’s watch and those certainly didn’t help him, but the ultimate reason Blair is gone is because of the dissatisfaction President Obama and the National Security Staff had with Blair’s ability to share intelligence in a tight, coherent and timely way.

 

I'm trying to figure out what the real story is here and I felt like typing it out. There's been talk of conflict between Blair and CIA head Panetta, not-getting along at a personal level, and most of the White House team, including people in the military, seem to be giving the impression that they're working better with Panetta.

 

So, maybe this is just a personality conflict. But let's look a bit deeper here. The whole point of the DNI position, at least as it was created after the 9/11 comission reforms, was to serve as a clearinghouse for intelligence, as a place there the dots coming from the disparate agencies (FBI, CIA, DOD, NSA, TSA, DHS) could go to be connected.

 

We now seem to have a couple examples of dots going unconnected and lives being put in danger because of it. The most notable example is obviously the underwear bomber, where warnings about the guy went unprocessed until the event had already happened.

 

I'm just wondering whether this is a failure of the guy in that position and his underlings, or whether this is an actual case of it simply being impossible for anyone to do the job that the DNI is supposed to do; break down walls between organizations that really like their walls.

[Jenksismyhero]

I'm trying to figure out what the real story is here and I felt like typing it out. There's been talk of conflict between Blair and CIA head Panetta, not-getting along at a personal level, and most of the White House team, including people in the military, seem to be giving the impression that they're working better with Panetta.

 

So, maybe this is just a personality conflict. But let's look a bit deeper here. The whole point of the DNI position, at least as it was created after the 9/11 comission reforms, was to serve as a clearinghouse for intelligence, as a place there the dots coming from the disparate agencies (FBI, CIA, DOD, NSA, TSA, DHS) could go to be connected.

 

We now seem to have a couple examples of dots going unconnected and lives being put in danger because of it. The most notable example is obviously the underwear bomber, where warnings about the guy went unprocessed until the event had already happened.

 

I'm just wondering whether this is a failure of the guy in that position and his underlings, or whether this is an actual case of it simply being impossible for anyone to do the job that the DNI is supposed to do; break down walls between organizations that really like their walls.

 

I think that's the answer. The reality is, there's no way to protect the country in every possible scenario. No amount of money or man power will achieve that. At best, you hope to have a system whereby the intelligence/defense agencies aren't playing politics but have the same unified visiion. I think any administrator can do that. I don't think it's his responsibility to connect the dots. I think it's his responsibility to make sure the dots are available for actual analysts to connect.

[Balta1701]

I think it's his responsibility to make sure the dots are available for actual analysts to connect.

But in both 9/11 and the explosive underpants, the dots were available and were not connected.

 

Getting the dots doesn't seem to be a problem. Getting them onto 1 guy's computer screen somewhere appears to be a much bigger issue.

[Jenksismyhero]

But in both 9/11 and the explosive underpants, the dots were available and were not connected.

 

Getting the dots doesn't seem to be a problem. Getting them onto 1 guy's computer screen somewhere appears to be a much bigger issue.

 

then we need better analysts. We can't really expect a director to know about every threat/investigation can we? Do we expect the head of the CPD to know about every crime investigation going on in chicago?

 

I think the failing of 9/11 and the underpants guy was more on analysts (and even then I think that's partly a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation) than on the DNI.

[Balta1701]

then we need better analysts. We can't really expect a director to know about every threat/investigation can we? Do we expect the head of the CPD to know about every crime investigation going on in chicago?

 

I think the failing of 9/11 and the underpants guy was more on analysts (and even then I think that's partly a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation) than on the DNI.

Isn't the job of the DNI specifically to make sure that they have people working on putting things together?

[Jenksismyhero]

Isn't the job of the DNI specifically to make sure that they have people working on putting things together?

 

You don't think he had that?

[Balta1701]

You don't think he had that?

If he did, then they proved ineffective.