CIA wins turf battle over DNI: But is it over?

WASHINGTON - A polite pat on the back usually sends the message that all is well.

On Nov. 10, Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta received his public pat on the back by being granted the right by the White House to select the chief U.S. intelligence officer in each country where the U.S. has a presence. It brought an end to a nearly year-long dispute with the Director of National Intelligence, retired Adm. Dennis Blair.

"This issue has been settled, and the CIA anticipates an even closer relationship with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence," says CIA spokesman George Little.

But has that relationship grown closer or is there still an underlying tension between the two offices?

A former intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Blair might have resigned if he didn't get the power the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 bequeathed to him.

In May, Blair issued a directive declaring he had the power to select non-CIA personnel as his eyes and ears in certain countries overseas. Panetta reportedly fired off a notice to the CIA workforce instructing them to disregard Blair's message.

"This is an issue that evokes a tremendous amount of emotion at both CIA and at the DNI as well," says former CIA director Michael Hayden.

The reason, according to former Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, is retention of power.

"They're very sensitive to their boundaries and making sure they preserve the rights they had before and that they're reporting to the President as opposed to some intermediary," says McConnell.

Hayden and McConnell went head-to-head over the same issue as appointees in the Bush administration. Hayden recalled that he and McConnell "worked on it for about a year ourselves and never quite got ink on the paper."

A part of the reason for that was the division in Washington caused by the dispute.

The Senate Intelligence Committee lined up squarely behind the DNI on July 22, saying in its Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, "the committee supports the DNI in that choice and looks forward to the CIA's prompt adherence to his decision."

The scuffle continued as the CIA, which for a half-century had been the traditional choice for the overseas representative, took up the matter with the National Security Council. The leadership at CIA felt they were the natural choice.

"In terms of operational art, history, even the way the community is wired - and I mean that literally, where the fiber optic cable goes - CIA's at the center of the American intelligence community. By legislation, the DNI is at the center," says Hayden.

A U.S. government official says the National Security Council took the matter under study as the spat continued. The matter was then sent to Vice President Joe Biden, who made the decision, which was communicated through National Security Adviser James Jones.

NSC spokesperson Chris Hensman did not return calls to that office.

McConnell says in hindsight, "The director of National intelligence probably would've been more appropriately named the coordinator of National Intelligence. There are six departments and 16 different agencies. So what the Director of National Intelligence's role is, is an attempt to coordinate and integrate the activities of 16 different agencies toward some common purpose - obtaining information to protect the nation's interests."

The bitter battle, which some say exposes a dangerous rift, indicates the decision to create the office of DNI was the right idea, but didn't go far enough.

McConnell says the intelligence community could benefit by streamlining itself much like the the "U.S. military did in 1986," as an example of how it can bring all of the different agencies into one integrated organization, with authority granted to one single individual.

As the intelligence community's evolution continues, the overall matter of power between the two agencies may not yet be resolved.

"I think what you're seeing in the current ebb and flow is a manifestation in that development where we are in that development, says McConnell.

He then asks, "Will we take the next step to make the DNI's role stronger or make it weaker?"

(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)