dennis blair

The Washington Post previews a speech that top Obama counterterrorism aide John Brennan will give later this morning at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. (I’ll be there to cover it.) It looks like it’ll unite some recent speeches and statements on the administration’s approach to the terrorism challenge — like Homeland Security Secretary [...]

The Wall Street Journal reports that White House Counsel Greg Craig’s job is in trouble. Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina tells the paper’s Evan Perez that speculation to that regard amounts to “typical Washington parlor games.” Then he says that it’s unfortunate that “others spend their time pointing fingers in an attempt to promote [...]

There’s a dispute inside the Obama administration about who should have the authority to appoint and direct the chief intelligence officer at oversees outposts. Should it be CIA Director Leon Panetta, since the job is traditionally a CIA responsibility? Or should it be Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, who runs the intelligence community overall?
Blair [...]

Greg Sargent reported yesterday that Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) wrote to Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, after The Washington Post paraphrased Blair as suggesting that the CIA was never legally required to brief Congress on its controversial “significant actions.”
In a response to Feingold obtained by The Washington Independent, Blair attempted to clear up [...]

Greg Sargent reports that Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) is calling out Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, for implying to The Washington Post that there was nothing illegal about keeping Congress in the dark for the past eight years about secret CIA “significant actions” that may have been some kind of nascent assassination program. [...]

Last year, the Democratic Congress enthusiastically acquiesced to President George W. Bush’s insistence on carving out individualized suspicion and other privacy protections from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Democrats did so to preempt the charge of being weak on national security from the presidential campaign — didn’t work — and then-Sen. Barack Obama, who [...]

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fresh from Moscow for a military-to-military relations visit, is at the National Press Club. I didn’t know his Naval Academy class also included Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), Oliver North and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair. Anyway, here are some highlights of his overview [...]

T.I. has prudent advice for conflict mediation. Marc Ambinder reports that the dispute over whether CIA Director Leon Panetta or Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair should have the authority to appoint and remove intelligence chiefs in foreign stations — historically a CIA prerogative — is going to Vice President Joe Biden for a resolution. [...]

Responding to the controversial assertion by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair on June 8 that warrantless wiretapping “wasn’t illegal,” Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) today sent a letter to President Obama asking him to make clear that he is not claiming that extraordinary executive authority to disregard the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.
“As a [...]

Late in 2008, Mike McConnell, then the director of national intelligence, issued a directive instructing CIA officials at overseas outposts directly responsible to him. It was the first time in the brief history of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that the director had waded a toe into the operational side of spycraft. [...]