Cambios en la inteligencia de EE UU

Todo apunta que John Dimitri Negroponte dejará su cargo como Coordinador de las 16 agencias de inteligencia en EE UU y será nombrado Subsecretario de Estado; será sustituido por otro John, el vicealmirante retirado John Michael McConnell.

Una nota del periódico The Washington Post señala:

Negroponte to Leave Job to Be State Dept. Deputy
By Glenn KesslerWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, January 4, 2007; A11

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has persuaded John D. Negroponte to leave his post as director of national intelligence and come to the State Department as her deputy, government officials said last night.

Negroponte's move would fill a crucial hole on Rice's team. She has been without a deputy since Robert B. Zoellick left in July for a Wall Street firm. It also comes as President Bush plans to announce a new Iraq strategy; as former Iraq envoy, Negroponte would be expected to play a major role in implementing that plan in his new role.

Negroponte's decision to step down as the nation's top spy for a sub-Cabinet position marks a sudden reversal. Rice had earlier sought to recruit Negroponte -- as well as other high-profile figures -- for the job, but last month he insisted he was staying at his post.

"In my own mind at least, I visualize staying . . . through the end of this administration, and then I think probably that'll be about the right time to pack it in," he told C-SPAN in an interview broadcast Dec. 3. "I've pulled together a very good team, and they've stayed with me for the past 18 months," he said, "and I hope they'll stay with me as long as I'm in the job."

He reiterated that commitment in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters on Dec. 14. Negroponte is the first person to hold the post of intelligence czar, created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
NBC News first reported Negroponte's planned move to State. Administration officials said Negroponte's likely successor as head of U.S. intelligence is retired Navy Adm. John M. McConnell, who directed the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996 under President Bill Clinton. McConnell is now a senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, the Washington contractor and consulting agency.

Government officials last night declined to say how Rice lured Negroponte, 67, though some had suggested earlier that he was unhappy as director of national intelligence and that he would like to return to his roots at the State Department. Negroponte was a Foreign Service officer from 1960 to 1997, serving as ambassador to the Philippines, Honduras and Mexico.

Even with a Democratic-controlled Senate, Negroponte should have little trouble winning confirmation. In the current administration, he has been confirmed as permanent U.S. representative to the United Nations, ambassador to Iraq and director of national intelligence.

One U.S. official said an official announcement will come later this week, probably tomorrow. White House and State Department officials declined to comment.

Observers have been puzzled at how long it has taken Rice to fill the deputy position in a period of intense diplomatic activity.

Rice gave Zoellick wide berth as her deputy. He had primary responsibility for relations with China, the crisis in Sudan, Latin America, economic affairs and Southeast Asia. In a first for a deputy secretary of state, he frequently allowed reporters on his plane when he traveled abroad.

Zoellick left a Cabinet post -- U.S. trade representative -- to take the job as Rice's deputy.

January 4, 2007
Intelligence Chief to Shift to Deputy State Dept. Post
By Mark Mazzetti

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 — Joh D. Negroponte, whom President Bush installed less than two years ago as the first director of national intelligence, will soon leave his post to become the State Department’s second-ranking official, administration officials said Wednesday.

Mr. Negroponte will fill a critical job that has been vacant for months, and he is expected to play a leading role in shaping policy in Iraq. But his transfer is another blow to an intelligence community that has seen little continuity at the top since the departure of George J. Tenet 2004 as director of central intelligence.

Mr. Negroponte had been brought to the intelligence job to help restore credibility and effectiveness to agencies whose reputations were badly damaged by failures related to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and mistaken prewar assessments of Iraq’s illicit weapons. He has maintained a low public profile but provides Mr. Bush with a briefing most mornings.

President Bush has hailed the establishment of the intelligence post as an essential step in helping prevent another terrorist attack. On paper, the director of national intelligence outranks the deputy secretary of state, raising questions about why the White House would seek — and why Mr. Negroponte would agree to — the shift.

The move, expected to be announced this week, comes as the president prepares to announce a new strategy for Iraq as sectarian violence worsens there and approval ratings sag at home.

The administration has had great difficulty filling the State Department position. Secretary of State Condollezza Rice has asked several people who have turned down the post, according to senior State Department officials.

But administration officials interviewed on Wednesday would not say whether Mr. Negroponte was moving because the White House saw him as uniquely qualified for the diplomatic post, or because President Bush was dissatisfied with his performance as intelligence chief, or whether it was a combination of the two.

Mr. Negroponte has served as ambassador to the United Nation and to Iraq, and administration officials say Ms. Rice was trying to recruit him to bring more Iraq expertise to her office.

Administration officials from two different agencies said Wednesday that the leading candidate to become the new intelligence chief is J. Michael McConnell, a retired vice admiral who led the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996. Admiral McConnell was head of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Gen. Colin L. Powell during the first Persian Gulf war, in 1991.

Mr. Bush had at first been reluctant to set up the intelligence post, but ultimately bowed to Congressional pressure and made the office a cabinet-level position.

As deputy secretary of state, Mr. Negroponte, who would need Senate confirmation for the post, would fill a pivotal foreign policy position that has been vacant since Robert B. Zoellick resigned to take a post at Goldman Sachs.

The shift of Mr. Negroponte, first reported Wednesday evening by NBC News, reflects a further transformation in President Bush’s foreign policy team that has already seen Robert M. Gates take over as defense secretary from Donald H. Rumsfeld. Mr. Bush still has other top posts to fill, including that of ambassador to the United Nations, left vacant with the departure of John R. Bolton.

Mr. Negroponte would move to the State Department as the administration is preparing a shift in Iraq strategy.

As a career diplomat who also served as ambassador to Mexico, the Philippines and Honduras, Mr. Negroponte brought a policy maker’s perspective to the role of intelligence chief, a post established by Congress at the end of 2004 to address a lack of coordination among intelligence agencies. He took over the job in April 2005, and said in an interview on C-Span last month that he expected to stay in his position until the end of the Bush administration.

Admiral McConnell is a career intelligence officer who is a senior vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton, an international consulting firm. During his tenure at the Pentagon and as director of the National Security Agency, Admiral McConnell worked closely with Mr. Gates during Mr. Gates’s time as deputy national security adviser and as director of central intelligence, and with Dick Cheney while he was defense secretary during the first Persian Gulf war.

Senator Susan M, Collins, Republican of Maine and chairwoman of the Senate Government Reform Committee, was a major backer of the intelligence post, and on Wednesday she said of the reported transfer: “The director of national intelligence is an absolutely critical position. I’m disappointed that Negroponte would leave this critical position when it’s still in its infancy. There are a number of people who could ably serve as deputy secretary of state, but few who can handle the challenges of chief of intelligence.”

Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat who also pressed for establishment of the intelligence job, said: “I’m worrying that our deficit in intelligence will not be corrected. I’m sorry Negroponte isn’t completing his term because he at least understood intelligence.”

Mr. Negroponte’s move to the State Department has been rumored for months. Ms. Rice was pushing to bring Mr. Negroponte in as her deputy, and officials in Washington speculated that the career diplomat might be more comfortable returning to the State Department.

The White House press secretary, Tony Snow, declined to comment on the change. “We don’t comment on personnel matters until the president has announced his intentions,” Mr. Snow said in an e-mail message Wednesday night.

Officials said one priority in replacing Mr. Negroponte had been to select someone who could pass swiftly through the Senate confirmation process. They also cautioned that the choice of Admiral McConnell was not final.

The job of deputy director of national intelligence is also vacant, and the White House is conscious that a long nomination battle in the Senate, where Democrats are now in the majority, could throw the intelligence office into disarray.

Helene Cooper and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.