The Director of U.S. National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, announced his resignation at a time when its work has been put into question after the failed attacks of Detroit and New York. President Barack Obama has accepted the resignation of Dennis Blair.
“During his time as DNI, our intelligence community has performed admirably and effectively at a time of great challenges to our security, and I have valued his sense of purpose and patriotism,” Obama said in a statement.
“I have had no greater honor or pleasure than to lead the remarkably talented and patriotic men and women of the Intelligence Community,” Blair said in the statement.
As Director of Intelligence, Blair was responsible for the coordination of 16 government agencies involved in gathering intelligence and fighting terrorism.
His resignation comes after a highly critical Senate report which says that he attributed largely to failures in the Counterterrorism Center’s Directorate of Intelligence the responsibility to avoid the failed attack on Christmas Day last year against an airplane that covered the route between Amsterdam and Detroit.
Then, the Nigerian student tried to blow Faruk Abdulmutallab explosive hidden in his underwear. Abdulmutallab retained his visa to travel to U.S. even after his father, a prominent banker in Nigeria, had informed U.S. diplomats and agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Abuja concerned about the extremist ideas of the young. Abdulmutallab name joined a list of about 560,000 people suspected of terrorist activities, but information on the young did not reach the level to which the U.S. State Department cancel his visa.
Following publication of the report of the Senate, Blair issued a statement acknowledging that “institutional and technological barriers remain that prevent the smooth exchange of information” between the various agencies.
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