[More links at original]
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Intelligence_officials_believe_White_House_chose_0108.html
January 8, 2007 The Raw Story.com
Officials believe White House chose new Intelligence chief in effort
to darken Iran Intelligence Estimate, broaden domestic surveillance
Larisa Alexandrovna
The nomination of retired Vice Admiral John Michael "Mike" McConnell
to be Director of National Intelligence is part of an effort by the
Vice President to tighten the Administrations grip on domestic
intelligence and grease the wheels for a more aggressive stance
towards Iran, current and former intelligence officials believe.
If confirmed, McConnell will replace current National Intelligence
Director John Negroponte, who was tapped Friday to become Deputy
Secretary of State under Secretary Condoleezza Rice. According to
officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, Negropontes exit
followed a lengthy internal administration battle between the Office
of the Vice President and the two-year-old Office of the Director of
National Intelligence.
According to officials close to both men, two issues surround
Negropontes departure and McConnells nomination: a forthcoming
National Intelligence Estimate on Iran which the White House could use
to buttress a case for military force and pressure from the Vice
President to augment domestic surveillance.
Negroponte had resisted both efforts. Tensions soared after Negroponte
made a public statement last year that countered the administration
position that Iran was an immediate threat and that its alleged
nuclear weapons program was in an advanced stage.
The NIE on Iran is at issue, said one former senior intelligence
officer close to Negroponte.
The National Intelligence Estimate is an interagency report that
synthesizes information across all intelligence agencies on a
particular topic, providing an overall assessment and analysis.
<snip>
Parts of an earlier Iran Intelligence Estimate were leaked to the
Washington Post in 2005. These excerpts asserted that Iran was at
least ten years away from possessing any significant nuclear
enrichment capability and contrasted sharply with White House
estimates, which had warned Iran could mount a full-scale attack in
3-5 years.
The carefully hedged assessments, which represent consensus among U.S.
intelligence agencies, contrast with forceful public statements by the
White House, the Posts Dafna Linzer reported. Administration officials
have asserted, but have not offered proof, that Tehran is moving
determinedly toward a nuclear arsenal.
Negroponte defended the published findings, attempting to push back
against pressure from the Vice Presidents office, and maintained his
opposition to military action against Iran.
By March 2006, however, the Department of Defense on orders from the
Vice Presidents Office had created the Iranian Directorate, which was
largely a recreation of the notorious Office of Special Plans. The
Office of Special Plans operated in the build-up to the Iraq war and
is believed by most experts to have been the conduit through which
pre-Iraq war intelligence was allegedly manipulated, if not cooked
outright.
In a previous RAW STORY article on the Iranian Directorate, John Pike
of Global Security a Washington-based intelligence clearinghouse said,
It was created to, as Dean Acheson urged Harry Truman, to scare hell
out of the American people by making things a little bit clearer than
the truth.
The creation of the Iran Directorate sharply undercut the Director of
National Intelligence and what sources say were Negropontes efforts to
collect the most comprehensive and accurate intelligence on Iran and
provide it directly to the President. The Office was created in 2005
by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act to centralize
information coming out of all 16 US intelligence agencies, including
the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
According to officials, Negroponte, while trying to work around
interagency tensions, was not given the requisite authority to
override pressure from Cheneys office.
In October, Negroponte publicly cautioned against the use of force
with regard to Iran, telling President Bush that because of technical
errors in Iran's nuclear program, the situation was not an emergency.
Domestic Surveillance
The other key area of concern for the intelligence community in
McConnells nomination is the Executive Branchs attempt to expand
domestic surveillance programs, especially those conducted by the
National Security Agency.
Current and former intelligence officials say that Negroponte and his
staff were not comfortable with the level of domestic surveillance or
the use of NSA wiretaps that were being pushed by the White House.
[The office of the Vice President] could not get Negroponte to do
anything with NSA and domestic surveillance, said one former senior
intelligence official. McConnell worked with Cheney during the Gulf
War.
He is not competent, but he is someone they can control, the official
added.
<end except>
Michael