Shake-up in spy world boosts McConnell's stock
To put a winner/loser take on things — one that Bush administration officials would surely object to — the shake-up of the intelligence community that the White House announced this morning leaves the director of national intelligence, J. Michael McConnell, with at least an upper hand vis-a-vis the CIA.
The DNI ends up with more formal oversight of the CIA and the 15 other agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, many of them run by the Pentagon.
The administration presented the long-awaited reorganization in a White House executive order, press release, fact sheet and not-for-attribution telephone news conference with reporters.
The Times' Josh Meyer, preparing a lengthy report for latimes.com and Friday's print edition, says that congressional leaders, who were not consulted in the redesign, were sharply critical of the plan.
The two senior officials who spoke with reporters about the document said it reinforced civil liberties protections and continued an existing ban on assassination and limitations on human experimentation.
But a congressional official briefed on the changes said that it would take a while until the full ramifications were worked out. In other words, in the vague and hazy world of spycraft, there will be some give-and-take before policy becomes reality. And just because it looks as though McConnell came out on top ...
— James Gerstenzang
Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
