Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [225]
Much of the problem with the DCI’s authority stemmed from the origins of the office and how the intelligence community developed. The designation DCI predates the creation of the CIA. The first DCIs ran the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), which became the CIA in the National Security Act of 1947. President Harry S. Truman’s goal in creating the CIA under the DCI was to have a central organization that could coordinate the disparate analyses coming from the State Department and the military. No one envisioned the CIA’s producing finished intelligence in its own right or conducting operations. Thus, the limited authority granted to the DCI was consistent with the role as coordinator. The CIA was seen as the agency that supported this coordinative role.
As the CIA moved to fill both analytical and operational voids, the DCI’s power base grew, but it also diverted the DCI’s attention from the community-wide role. This is the issue that the 2004 legislation sought to correct, freeing the DNI from running any agency and thus allowing the DNI to concentrate on the larger role. What remains at issue is the degree to which this larger role can be accomplished without the strong institutional base that the CIA afforded the DCI. As former acting DCI John McLaughlin (2004) noted in his testimony on the proposed legislation, the reason DCIs have relied on the CIA was that it was the only agency they could command. The DNI does not have this base on which to fall back.
The DCI’s role could have been significantly enhanced if the office had been given budget execution authority over the National Foreign Intelligence Program (NFIP: now the National Intelligence Program). The ability to direct the allocation and spending of money is a major source of power and control, which is why DOD fought to keep this power from the DNI. But a political issue also was involved in choosing this course: It was too bureaucratic and not dramatic enough to suit those seeking major changes. Furthermore, some of the September 11 families proved an effective and difficult-to-refute lobbying force in favor of the DNI I legislation. Although some have questioned the propriety of allowing the families to dictate national security structure, they had tremendous political clout.
DOD’s arguments against ceding spending control to either the DCI or DNI are based on the view that such a change runs the risk of limiting intelligence support to military operations and that, without direct DOD control, the intelligence support may be wanting. The likelihood of this happening seems small. It is difficult to believe that any DCI or DNI would run the political risk inherent in not giving full support to the military in peacetime or in war, if for no other reason than self-protection, to avoid being blamed for military setbacks or casualties. Nothing in past practice over the more than sixty years of the modern intelligence community’s existence would suggest that any substance can be found behind this argument.
The ultimate success or failure of the DNI position remains uncertain. The first DNI, John Negroponte (2005-2007), was criticized by his congressional overseers for not being firm enough in establishing and using his authority. Negroponte deserves credit for getting what many perceived to be an unwieldy structure up and functioning, but he did not exercise much guiding authority over the