John Negroponte, the current US ambassador to Iraq, is taking on what some consider to be another impossible job. He has just been appointed the country’s first director of national intelligence, where the veteran diplomat will have to reshape an unwieldy bureaucracy of fifteen different spy agencies. He must negotiate turf battles and department budgets, all while trying to decipher the limits and responsibilities of his own ambiguously defined job.
Negroponte, has never served in intelligence and his past lives as an ambassador are not without controversy. But he pulled off the Iraqi elections, and he has the ear and the confidence of the President. Two questions: Is Negroponte the right man for the job and is the job right for the country?
Guests:
Robin Wright, State Department Correspondent for The Washington Post
David MacMichael, former CIA Senior Analyst
Lee Strickland, recently retired Senior Intelligence Officer, visiting professor at University of Maryland
Larry Johnson, former Deputy Director of State Department Office of Counter Terrorism.