Regarding the upcoming nomination/Senate approval of Lieutenant General [ret] Clapper. There is great controversy over having a military wonk in that slot.
In a nutshell, he can't succeed; not because he's a military guy, but because he's an outsider.
LTG Clapper is an interesting guy. He's held most of the top slots in the Intelligence Community [IC] e.g., NSA, NGA, DIA, so he's an experienced IC manager; as far as hands-on experience, he's a little on the weak side since he hasn't been out there running spies or agent networks.
He's more of techie; likes satellites, Signals Intelligence [SIGINT], Communications Intelligence [COMINT], Imagery Intelligence [IMINT], MASINT, etc. if it's tied to a technical link, and the budget is in the billions of dollars, he's your guy.
He took over DIA and the DOD HUMINT program in the 1990s after it had been around for about ten years and claimed it as his own creation, but we'll not quibble about that; he kept HUMINT alive in the Clinton Administration, so he should get appropriate credit there.
Of the military options, he's probably the best choice since he's been in corporate as well as DOD senior slots; although it's easy to believe he got the corporate slots [e.g., SRA, Booz, BAE, etc.] so the companies could have greater access to DOD contracts. But, that's the way the revolving door works. More power to him if he pulled that off and made a few bucks in the process.
However, I don't think he'd make a good DNI. Not because he doesn't have the right experience and management process, but moreso because he doesn't have the Oval Office Access that's necessary for that job. The title doesn't over-ride the parochialism of the IC, nor does it give him the ultimate power tool: the BUDGET.
Keep in mind that each of your intelligence agency directors reports to his own agency boss, and gets his budget from that boss. The DNI, without budget authority, simply doesn't have the independent clout to drive the IC managers because -- they don't work for him!
Wild Bill Donovan was the right guy to run the OSS [IC] because he had Roosevelt's full confidence. He could walk into the Oval Office without an appointment and interrupt a Cabinet meeting. As a brigadier, he could walk into a room full of 4-star generals and they would all stand and defer to him. That was because he spoke for FDR.
Another military DCI whom you never hear about was Vernon Walters, a three star general who had full access to the Oval Office, and just as much clout with the IC and the President as Donovan had, if not more. He knew enough to maintain his invisibility, and was the more powerful for it. He routinely had full access to Nixon and did not sit out in the hallway as did William M Felt, the FBI agent whom Woodward claims was Deep Throat [more on that in another blog].
Stansfield Turner had the access to the Oval Office because he and Jimmy Carter were friends, but he was despised in the IC, and other than destroying the CIA, accomplished nothing in his reign of terror over the IC.
I don't see Clapper as having either access or great standing in the IC, so I'm going to guess that, even with Congressional approval, he won't be able to make it work.
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