WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2007

Bush Taps Ex-NSA Chief For Top Spy Post

Mike McConnell Chosen To Be National Intelligence Director

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    CBS News RAW: President Bush chose Mike McConnell to be his national intelligence director. McConnell replaces John Negroponte, who was nominated as deputy secretary of state.

    • President Bush, center, shakes hands with John Negroponte as he announces Negroponte's nomination for Deputy Secretary of State, Friday, Jan. 5, 2007 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. At right is Mike McConnell, the president's nominee to replace Negroponte as National Intelligence Director.

      President Bush, center, shakes hands with John Negroponte as he announces Negroponte's nomination for Deputy Secretary of State, Friday, Jan. 5, 2007 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. At right is Mike McConnell, the president's nominee to replace Negroponte as National Intelligence Director.  (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

    • Mike McConnell, President Bush's nominee for National Intelligence Director, second from right, makes remarks as he is introduced in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 5, 2007.

      Mike McConnell, President Bush's nominee for National Intelligence Director, second from right, makes remarks as he is introduced in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 5, 2007.  (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

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(CBS/AP) 
The administration denied that Negroponte's move was a demotion. The senior administration official said Mr. Bush personally reached out to Negroponte to fill the opening for deputy secretary of state, which has been vacant since July. Mr. Bush also talked with McConnell about becoming intelligence chief, a position that oversees and coordinates the 16 U.S. spy agencies.

McConnell spent more than a quarter-century as an intelligence operations and security officer and caught the attention of then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell during the first Persian Gulf War. He regularly briefed the two as an intelligence officer for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and is known as someone who can distill complicated information into coherent presentations, said Matthew Aid, a historian who studies the National Security Agency.

McConnell was tapped to lead U.S. eavesdropping efforts as director of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996. Aid suggested his record there was mixed. McConnell allowed Congress and the White House to slash NSA funding after the Cold War at a time when Aid said the government should instead have been ramping up for challenges posed by cell phones, the Internet and fiber-optic cable.

Yet, on McConnell's watch, the agency also became central to providing intelligence on the war in Bosnia, shipments of weapons-grade technology to Iraq and other tough issues of that era.

McConnell left the government and has worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a government contractor and consulting firm, for about a decade.

Negroponte has been a diplomat in spy's clothing since he became the nation's first intelligence chief in April 2005, more comfortable in ambassadorial circles than the cloak-and-dagger world.

As Rice's deputy, he no longer would have first chair for a major government department or oversight of a $40 billion budget. But associates said the job of creating a new organization from scratch has had plenty of frustrations, from securing office space to planning foreign travel.

Negroponte has been at the center of Mr. Bush's Iraq strategy. He was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations when Secretary of State Powell made his now-infamous, error-filled presentation there in arguing for the invasion of Iraq. Negroponte became the U.S. ambassador to Iraq in June 2004, and was there for the January 2005 elections that Sunni Muslims boycotted.

Soon after, the White House asked him to take a job that others had already turned down because Congress didn't give the position enough power: national intelligence director.

Some doubted the wisdom of creating such a slot, worried it would only further weigh down an unwieldy bureaucracy. Negroponte leaves as the success or failure of that endeavor remains an open question.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., whose panel must approve McConnell's nomination, said he was troubled by the timing of Negroponte's departure because it leaves a void while his organization is still in its infancy.

Rockefeller and the committee's top Republican, Kit Bond of Missouri, both said that a new intelligence chief must be in place before Negroponte leaves. "A premature departure creates an unneeded vacuum within the DNI office at a critical time," Bond said.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 26 Comments
by macusweil January 6, 2007 7:31 PM EST
"Let's impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

Who's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government's protection
Or was someone just not home that day?

Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop

Let's impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he's cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There's lots of people looking at big trouble
But of course our president is clean."

~Mr. Neil Young
Reply to this comment
by bluestardad January 6, 2007 10:24 AM EST
Plausible Deniability, Shuffle the people and they can truly say they did not know anything about the treason that was going on in this Bush Administration. When in American History has a Sitting Vice President jumped when Summoned by Saudi Arabia?
Reply to this comment
by defirststate January 6, 2007 5:20 AM EST
The terms "deck chairs" and Titanic come to mind.
Reply to this comment
by bildooreilly January 6, 2007 12:34 AM EST
And speaking of working J Whitman, as if any of these politicians in either party has ever actually worked or ran a successful business of their own besides being a lawyer which is all about who you know and padding pockets and lying... they're all failures, and crooks/lawyers. Why do americans feel compelled to vote for these two parties of elitist frauds?



Here we go again,, The Great Decider makes his choice,,, As if any of his decisions have ever worked.
Posted by j-whitman at 05:04 PM : Jan 05, 2007
Reply to this comment
by tibu987 January 5, 2007 11:28 PM EST
So "W" continues to surround himself with a@@ kisssing yes men.
And so it goes.
The following is an intelligent quote that seem appropo for the occassion.

%u201CSerge, this boy is very intelligent, but I can't keep working with him.
He agrees with everything I say.%u201D

Luis Bunuel, the Director, to Jean-Claude Carriere
in his biog. By John Baxter, p.269
Reply to this comment
by j-whitman January 5, 2007 8:12 PM EST
AMERICA NEEDS A NEW DECIDER -- NOW
Reply to this comment
by j-whitman January 5, 2007 8:04 PM EST
Here we go again,, The Great Decider makes his choice,,, As if any of his decisions have ever worked.
Reply to this comment
by fascistusa January 5, 2007 6:57 PM EST
To some of use, "TAP" has another meaning. You TAP him Lord Bush, you TAP him GOOD.

More shuffling of People. Who cares?

When is the Fascist Tyranny Corporate Controlled Government for the RICH going to STOP???

gasoline + styrofoam couple days = NAPALM
Reply to this comment
by jn122736 January 5, 2007 6:48 PM EST
Given the almost total loss of credibility of this administration I doubt there is anything they are not capable of.
I suspect many Americans harbor great suspicion over the official report about 911 although many are reluctant or afraid to admit it, even to them selves.
Considering the almost too numerous to mention %u201Ccoincidences%u201D both before and after the fact can anyone truthfully say there is no possibility of complicity.

To name a few coincidences:
1. Quote from PNAC before 911; %u201CFurther, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event %u2014 like a new Pearl Harbor."
2. Bush administration planning Iraq invasion months before 911.
3. Delayed or nonexistent response to initial attacks on WTC.
4. No previous skyscraper building in history had ever collapsed in freefall except form strategically placed explosives, yet three such buildings did in the same incident on 911.
5. Congressional approval for the invasion of Iraq was gained through multiple incidences of false and or faulty information (Which did not convince the UN to go along).
6. The fear factor exploited to the fullest. i.e. mushroom cloud etc.
7.
I know this will bring out the usual cries of Conspiracy theory but I would like to see a truly independent investigation. This will probably never happen because too many people are afraid to learn what might really have happened.
Reply to this comment
by heetseeker January 5, 2007 6:45 PM EST
"Strategy Schmategy"

In politics, one of the few things more dangerous than desperation is delusion. A person in a state of thinks that irrational is normal. They can see no fault in their action. To them, the basic principles of sound decision making (contextual appreciation, analysis, risk appraisal and evaluation of options are meaningless).

Next week, the President will present his "new way forward" for Iraq." This effort builds upon the "strategy for victory" in Iraq, which was published just last year. If like me you are wondering why we didnot have a strategy for victory in the beginning..... (coughs)

Presumably, the "new way forward" will also draw lessons from the recently published Iraq Study Group report - but don't hold your breath.

In truth, it will be a last throw of the dice for a President that has allowed his desperation over Iraq to become delusion. More troops will go to Iraq and more will surely die. Why? Because visibility equates to occupation. It won't work because it is "our" plan for Iraq not Iraqi's plan for itself.

The President's delusion is that he fails to recognise that he may be offering the Iraqi's something that they don't even want. And even if they did want it, they would have to get it for themselves. We cannot give it to them.
Reply to this comment
by specimenfred January 5, 2007 5:28 PM EST
BUSHPIG OPENING YOUR MAIL NOW, NEEDS NEW TRAITOR TO ASSIST
Reply to this comment
by rharrin1 January 5, 2007 4:01 PM EST
I don't think the democrats have enough majority in senate to impeach a lot of gop would have to cross over don't think you'll ever see that. But I wish they would!!!!!
Reply to this comment
by valendug January 5, 2007 3:23 PM EST
I'd rather blog about Cheney shooting that old man's face off while hunting. Best blog of last year. Beats the heck out of talking about some retired REAR republiKKKon admiral being the new spyman.
Reply to this comment
by jimibear January 5, 2007 3:14 PM EST
MEboard, in my opinion, Bush is acheiving exactly what he wants to in Iraq: prolonging a war in which members of and contributors to the Republican party are making money hand over fist in no-bid contracts in which they financially rape the US military.

$45 for a 6-pack of Coke, for instance. And for the first time ever, outside contractors are handling things like laundry and catering which the military used to do themselves. And those are tiny examples.

If it were "blood for oil", God knows that would be bad enough. But "blood for money for crooks" is the real crime.

And yes, should you be in any doubt: I believe that this administration is more than happy for Americans to continue to die so that they can make money. We are under the control of genuinely evil people at this point in history, in my opinion.
Reply to this comment
by jimibear January 5, 2007 3:10 PM EST
One minor point of disagreement, Yurpallid; it may be because I live in a "blue state", but even among people who voted for Bush, I didn't get much sense in 2000 that they thought he had all the answers. It seemed more of a case of, "Well, it's him or Al Gore ... it hurts to do it, but I'm voting for Bush ... "
Reply to this comment
by meboard January 5, 2007 3:08 PM EST
This lip service of a new approach is only smoke to cover him to the end of his term (if he makes it). He's already said that Iraq is the problem for another administration(s). Yet you can't believe ANYTHING that comes out of his mouth!!! "Yes we're winning." "We're not winning and we're not loosing." He doesn%u2019t have a clue of which way to go or what he wants to achieve...and we're loosing 100 troops a month...a thousand a year. This is truly criminal!!!
Reply to this comment
by jimibear January 5, 2007 3:04 PM EST
Nice simile, observantX. If you see a big rat in a lifevest with a pacemaker sneaking for a boat, that'll be Cheney.
Reply to this comment
by jimibear January 5, 2007 3:03 PM EST
Yurpallid, you are quite correct. This country is a perfect example of the dictum that "a people gets the government it deserves".

I foresee the day when we'll phone in our votes to "Presidential Idol". That's about the intellectual level that "we the people" have reached.
Reply to this comment
by jimibear January 5, 2007 3:02 PM EST
Right on the money, bluestardad. I think that he may find that is a wasted effort, though. In the event that impeachment gets underway, their present positions won't protect them from testifying regarding past misdeeds.

hey, at least McConnell has an intelligence background. Give Bush a little credit (words I thought I'd never say); this beats nominating a former lottery supervisor for the supreme court, making a horse-breeder head of FEMA, or naming a former Seagrams exec to the number-two slot in the defense department.

What a complete tool Bush is, and what a corrupt joke in poor taste his incompetent and venal administration.
Reply to this comment
by tejasdemo January 5, 2007 2:23 PM EST
I agree with Bluestar.
Reply to this comment
See all 26 Comments

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