President Barack Obama will replace the former Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair whose resignation will come as soon as tomorrow. President Obama had a discussion with Blair this afternoon on a secure phone line about the best way forward. Blair offered to resign and the president said that he accepted his resignation. There were a number of intelligence failures during Blair’s tenure, these involved the Fort Hood shooter, Failed Christmas Day Bomber – Umar Farouq Abdulmuttalab and Failed Times Square Bomber – Faisal Shahzad. There were reports that President Obama sought Blair’s resignation earlier this week, however Blair pushed back and hoped to convince the president to change his mind. The ultimate reason for Blair gone is due to the dissatisfaction of President Obama and the National Security Staff with Blair’s ability to share intelligence in a tight, coherent timely way.
Blair has had battles which made it clear to the White House that they would have more confidence in others such as counterterrorism and homeland security adviser John Brennan. Blair attempted to pick the chief US intelligence officer in each country despite the CIA Director Leon Panetta’s wish. The White House sided with Panetta. After a mocking report on intelligent failures and Abdulmuttalab was made by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Blair answered in a statement “institutional and technological barriers remain that prevent seamless sharing of information.”
Several Candidates have been interviewed for the national intelligence director’s job which is to oversee the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies. A US official confirmed that Lt. Gen. James Clapper, currently the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, is the leading Candidate.
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