Intelligence Leadership in the News
Leading from a Staff Position
“Gen. David H. Petraeus plans to open an in-house intelligence organization at U.S. Central Command this week that will train military officers, covert agents and analysts who agree to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan for up to a decade.
“The organization, to be called the Center for Afghanistan Pakistan Excellence, will be led by Derek Harvey, a retired colonel in the Defense Intelligence Agency who became one of the Gen. Petraeus’ most trusted analysts during the 2007-08 counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq.
“Mr. Harvey distinguished himself in Iraq by predicting that the Iraqi insurgency would spiral out of control, at a time when it was widely underestimated by the Bush administration, in 2003 and 2004….
“….In 2005, Mr. Harvey wrote a paper on how to reform the intelligence community based on his experience in Iraq.
“‘I put together a paper to outline the way ahead to address the shortcomings of the intelligence community's posture for addressing the threat in Iraq and the emerging problems I anticipated. I outlined what we could do, in building architecture, training, realigning resources and developing new architecture,’ he said.
“But when he presented the report to Gen. Petraeus, the general told Mr. Harvey not to go public with his critique. ‘His counsel was let me help you, there is a better way to bring change. Sometimes you don't go public.’”
Gen. Petraeus, then used his leadership position and exercised his leadership authority to start the reform effort based on Colonel Harvey’s recommendations and has given Colonel Harvey the opportunity to implement them. That is exactly the leadership role of the staff officer. More than any other follower, Staff Officers should consider themselves as partners with the Commander in the leadership process. That is because staff officers are the direct extension of the Leader. They assist and support their Commanders in carrying out their responsibilities:
-to participate fully and actively in Community and organizational policy, planning and decisionmaking activities.
-to create a vision and goals for their organization in support of Community and higher level organizational visions and goals.
-to develop policies and plans for the implementation of the higher level direction and guidance as well as for the realization of the organizational vision and goals.
Indeed, as General Perry Smith emphasized to Pentagon staff officers, their role was to “lead the generals”.
For more on staff leadership, go here_____.
Extracts from “Petraeus To Open Intel Training Center” by Eli Lake in the Washington Times August 24, 2009.
Reference: Smith, Perry; Assignment Pentagon: How to Excel in a Bureaucracy (Brassey's, 2002). (reissue).
Can Leon Panetta Move the CIA Forward Without Confronting Its Past? By Jane Mayer in The New Yorker. To read this lengthly article, go there_______
Additional Military and Intelligence Professionals in Leadership Positions in the Obama Administration
"President Obama has retained three more high-level Pentagon officials from the Bush administration, according to a series of Defense Department appointments announced Thursday.
Staying in their posts are…. retired Air Force lieutenant general James Clapper, undersecretary of Defense for intelligence…..and retired Marine lieutenant general Wallace Gregson as assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific security affairs."
Extracted from report by Ray Locker in USAToday.
Leader Relationships
“In the old world, the CIA director ruled. He not only ran the spy agency, but he wore a second hat as Director of Central Intelligence.
The DCI was ostensibly responsible for coordinating the activities of all 16 agencies and departments which make up the intelligence community.
Then came along the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) in 2005 - a product of intelligence reform following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq….
Running the CIA in itself was a full-time job. The DNI would oversee the entire intelligence community while the CIA director concentrated on running the spy agency.
But there’s a problem with this setup. Although the DNI was given more input into budgets and personnel than the DCI had, the DNI's powers are limited and somewhat vague. The intelligence chief has a say in lots of things, but there's no real muscle behind his decisions. It's not like the defense secretary, who has absolute authority over all department components.
Outgoing CIA Director Mike Hayden recently told reporters there is natural tension between the CIA and DNI, but it’s ‘not a bad structure.’
He did suggest, however, that the DNI's office was getting a bit bloated. ‘Americans being Americans, they're going to fill up their day trying to doing something impactful,’ he said, “which means between the two of us there's going to be a trench line... out there.”
And how did departing DNI Mike McConnell respond to Hayden's quip?
‘Anytime you have organizations that have similar interests, you're going to have disputes,’ he said. ‘And particularly if the two leaders aren't working together and having a partnership and so on, the warfare at the trench level gets to be pretty much a raging battle.’
McConnell said he had a good professional relationship with Hayden, so they made it work. But he added, ‘we don't have a department of intelligence. If this were the Department of Defense, there wouldn’t be any question, but it isn't.’
CIA nominee Leon Panetta got into the middle of the dispute during his confirmation hearing.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, wanted to know Panetta's understanding of the relationship between the CIA and the DNI. Would he be under the supervision of the DNI?
Initially, Panetta said he reported to the DNI and performed the tasks assigned to him by the DNI, but then he added: ‘we are an operational arm, just like the [National Security Agency], just like the [National Reconnaissance Office], and I believe the role of the DNI is to coordinate all our activities...’
Well, the NSA and the NRO are part of the Defense Department and report directly to the Defense Secretary, not the DNI. The CIA is the only intelligence agency that is not part of another department.
A bit baffled by Panetta's response, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, asked him point blank, ‘Is the DNI your boss or not?’ Panetta’s answer, ‘The DNI is my boss.’
It makes you wonder how Panetta and the other new guy - DNI Dennis Blair - will play in the sand box.”
“CIA vs DNI Clash of the Titans” from the Association of Former Intelligence Officers Weekly Intelligence Notes dtd 17 Feb 09 based on ‘Benson/CNN/12February2009’
The Principal Military-Intelligence Professional in the Obama Administration.
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Dennis C. Blair became the nation's third Director of National Intelligence on January 29, 2009.
From 2003 to 2006, Blair was President and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analyses -- one of the nation's foremost national security analysis centers. Most recently, he served as the John M. Shalikashvili Chair in National Security Studies at the National Bureau of Asian Research, and the Deputy Director of the Project on National Security Reform, an organization that analyzes the U.S. national security structure and develops recommendations to improve its effectiveness.
Prior to retiring from the Navy in 2002, Admiral Blair served as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command, the largest of the combatant commands. During a 34-year Navy career, he served as Director of the Joint Staff and as the first Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support at the CIA. He has also served in budget and policy positions on the National Security Council.
A 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Blair earned a master's degree in History and Languages from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and served as a White House Fellow at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. |
A Leader's Parting Thoughts
In this final news briefing as Director of National Intelligence, Vice Admiral Mike McConnell USN (Ret) expressed the view that:
One of the most important missions of the DNI is to ensure all 16 agencies and departments which make up the intelligence community are all working in sync, all have access to the same information. McConnell says, “a DNI wakes up every day worrying about the community, willing to take on some of these issues of cross boundary activities and work them with a persistence and an aggressiveness that forces closure.”….
Naturally,
McConnell wishes there was a Department of Intelligence which would give the DNI absolute authority, but those were not the cards Congress dealt when it created the office in late 2004. McConnell points out there are 16 agencies “who are very protective of their standing and their mission and their prerogatives, who have powerful secretaries who often can be enlisted to support their resistance to change.” So it’s the DNI’s job to break down the bureaucracy and change the culture of the individual members of the community. How does the DNI do that? Well, certainly not alone. McConnell says the White House has to assist because “only the White House is going to give direction to cabinet officers” - that is, those powerful secretaries.
Thus,
As McConnell prepares to step aside for retired Admiral Dennis Blair, President Barack Obama's nominee for DNI, he touted the value of taking part in the President's Daily Briefing. ….McConnell hears first hand what the President wants to know and how questions are being answered. “How do I guide or influence or direct a community in response to Presidential interest or tasking unless I'm there to take part in the discussion?” asked McConnell.
If McConnell were to leave Blair a note, he said it would suggest the new DNI needs to run the community with “persistence, priorities and determination.”
Extracted from the Association of Former Intelligence Officers Weekly Intelligence Notes dtd 10 Feb. 09 based on CNN/22January2009.
A Gentleman's "B" for the Outgoing DNI
To read this article on the MAZZ-INT blog click here_____
Military and Intelligence Professionals
in Leadership Positions in the Obama Administration
In a White House staffed by academics, lawyers and political advisors, it is comforting to find the following military and intelligence professionals:
-James L. Jones as National Security Advisor. A retired 4-star general, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chairman of the Congressional Independent Committee on Iraqi Security Forces and Special State Department Envoy on Middle East Security.
-Mona Sutphen as Deputy Chief of Staff. A former Foreign Service Officer and National Security Council Staffer.
-Mark W. Lippert as Chief of Staff of the National Security Council. Former foreign policy advisor to several senators. A naval reserve intelligence officer who has been deployed to Iraq.
-John Brennan as Counterterrorism Advisor. Former CIA operations officer, Chief of Staff from 1999-2001 and interim Director of the National CounterTerrorism Center in 2004-5.
-Jack Reed as Advisor. Senator from Rhode Island, former professor at West Point, Army reservist, ranger and paratrooper.
The President’s Cabinet includes:
-Robert M. Gates as Secretary of Defense. Former CIA analyst and executive who served nine years on the National Security Council Staff, former Director of Central Intelligence.
-Eric K. Shinseki as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Retired 4-star general, Chief of Staff of the Army and combat veteran.
-W. Scott Gould as Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs. A former naval reserve intelligence officer served on active duty in Iraq.
Sources
The New York Times Magazine, 15 January 2009. "Obama Taps CIA Veteran as Advisor on Terror" by Jeffery Smith in the Washington Post Jan. 9. 2009. "Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Named" by Philip Rucker in the Washington Post Jan. 30, 2009.
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