Jack Kelly Sunday

Short late blog entry - I was up most of the night working on this.

In this week's column, Jack Kelly proves yet again that it's what he leaves out that's at least as important to a fuller understanding of his topic as what he actually says.

This time it's the DNI/CIA "turf wars." Jack begins with the story of President Obama at Five Guys:

While waiting for his burgers, the president chatted up a fellow named Walter, with whom Mr. Obama had this exchange:

Mr. Obama: "What do you do, Walter?"

Walter: "I work at NGA, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency."

Mr. Obama: "Outstanding. How long you been doing that?"

Walter: "About six years."

Mr. Obama: "You like it?"

Walter: "I do, keeps me ..."

Mr. Obama: "So explain to me what this National Geospatial ... uh ..."

Walter: "We, uh, work with satellite imagery."

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is, after the National Security Agency and the CIA, America's most important intelligence agency. It's hard to imagine a daily presidential intelligence briefing that doesn't include at least some slides from the NGA.

When Ben Smith reported the conversation in his column at Politico.com, it set off a firestorm of comments.

"I teach an undergrad course on National Security," wrote Frederick somebody. "Any student who has passed my course knows exactly what the NGA is and what they do. It is frightening that our president apparently has no clue."

If Mr. Obama is as ignorant of the intelligence community as this anecdote suggests, he'll be a poor referee of the turf war that has broken out between his director of national intelligence and the CIA.

And that sets up the remainder of the piece.

I did want to point out the comment posted at Ben Smith's blog. You can find it here. In fact it looks like this:

Notice anything about this screen capture? If you look really really carefully you'll see that the "Frederik Something" Jack quotes didn't actually post what Jack says he posted. He got it wrong.

Teeny tiny point, I realize, but if you're fact-checking the President of the United States doncha think you should have ALL YOUR OWN facts straight? Kinda helps with the credibility issues, doesn't it?

My best guess is that Jack Kelly doesn't think so.

And since when are anonymous comments (even mis-attributed ones) valid sources of information at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette? If they are shouldn't this one from the same blog posting be just as valid? Here's what "Chris Something" posted (and Jack omitted):

Actually, they're probably called DOD in the daily briefing. Probally not NGA.

By the way, there are sixteen agencies that make up the US Intelligence Community. Exactly half of them found in the Department of Defense. The NGA is only one of those eight. My guess is that President Obama does have a clue about the NGA. Considering this from the White House last February:

President Obama will visit the construction site of Fairfax County Parkway connector, serving the new east campus of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). NGA is consolidating its eastern facilities with Fort Belvoir Engineer Proving Ground, and it is also under construction.

Why he asked about the NGA at the Five Guys is anybody's guess.

By the way Five Guys has great burgers. Not Red Robin great, but great nonetheless.

But all this is besides the point. What is at point is what Jack omits regarding the current DNI/DCI turf wars. Here's what he says:

A turf war was inevitable once Congress created the post of DNI -- who is supposed to coordinate the activities of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies -- in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Before the reorganization, that was the responsibility of the CIA director.

The two DNIs who served during the Bush administration assumed control over joint intelligence analysis centers, such as the National Counterterrorism Center, where data from various agencies are analyzed.

The Bush DNIs also took from the CIA director responsibility for liaison with friendly foreign intelligence services. As a result, the Central Intelligence Agency is no longer "central." Most technical intelligence is gathered by NSA and NGA, and is analyzed in the joint centers. That leaves the CIA responsible, chiefly, for the gathering of human intelligence.

Now, according to a report May 23 by Pamela Hess of the Associated Press, Mr. Obama's DNI, retired Adm. Dennis Blair, wants to impinge upon that remaining CIA niche.

Adm. Blair, Ms. Hess wrote, wants "to choose his own representatives at U.S. embassies instead of relying only on CIA station chiefs."

Here is Hess' reporting.

As always, Jack leaves something out. At issue, according to Jack, is that the DNI wants "to choose his own representatives" and so on. But look a few paragraphs down from what Jack quotes. Here it is:

From the DNI's perspective, the proposal would allow Blair to tap the most relevant intelligence officer in an embassy or foreign country to serve as his eyes and ears.

In most cases that would be the CIA station chief. The station chief system has existed for 50 years, allowing the CIA to call the shots on pursuing and managing relationships with foreign intelligence and security services, and coordinating _ and sometimes constraining _ the work of other U.S. intelligence agencies and military forces abroad.

But in some countries the United States has few if any spies on the ground, and relies instead mostly on electronic eavesdropping to collect intelligence. A former senior intelligence official said that in those cases, Blair might want to have the senior National Security Agency officer instead of the station chief at the embassy serve as his personal representative.

The CIA last year successfully derailed a similar effort by the national intelligence director's office, then headed by former Adm. Mike McConnell. [emphasis added.]

So then there's...huh? So this isn't a NEW turfwar? This isn't a NEW intelligence issue threatening the Homeland? No my children, it isn't. Take a look at what it says here at Homeland Security Today:

The latest dispute between DCI Leon Panetta and DNI Dennis Blair has its roots in inaugural DNI John Negroponte having designated an intelligence officer that answers directly to the DNI be installed at embassies, military commands and overseas posts – a position that ruffled the feathers of the traditional turf authority of the CIA’s Chiefs of Station (COS), the IC’s principal representatives abroad since 1947.

But despite Negroponte’s IC CEO authority, his plan was never fully achieved and the Bush administration eventually had to issue a presidential directive - the first executive-level overhaul of the IC’s powers in more than 25 years - to cement in place the authorities of the DNI that apparently were left much too unstable by Congress’s reform of the IC that established the office of DNI to begin with.

Like his predecessor, McConnell also tried to establish his own eyes and ears abroad answerable only to the DNI. Objections by the DCI left the matter still unresolved by the time Barrack Obama was elected President.

And now the issue has erupted all over again as Blair also is trying to install his own representatives at embassies instead of relying only on CIA station chiefs.

Huh. So Jack Kelly omits the part about how the Bush Administration could have/should have resolved this but didn't.

Go figure.

Yet another Bush Administration mess for the Obama Administration to clean up.