Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [32]
Many observers wondered if the DNI would control the morning presidential briefing, which is central to the DNI’s access to the president. The issue was settled when White House chief of staff Andrew Card announced that the DNI would be responsible for the president’s daily brief (PDB). This still left open the question of who the DNI would rely upon to prepare the PDB. This was settled when the PDB was given over to the new deputy DNI for analysis. The PDB is now much more of a community product rather than an exclusively CIA product. As important as the PDB is in terms of the DNI’s relationship with the president, it also consumes a great deal of the DNI’s time six days a week, in terms of preparation, the actual briefing itself, and travel time to get to wherever the president is.
Similarly, senior CIA officers and analysts have usually provided the intelligence support for the Principals Committee (PC) and Deputies Committee (DC) of the NSC. The PC is the senior policy coordinating body of the NSC structure, consisting of the assistant to the president for national security affairs, sometimes the vice president, the secretaries of state and defense, the DNI, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Other cabinet officials (secretaries of Homeland Security, Energy, and so on) attend as necessary. The DC is made up of the deputies of the PC members and has a similar function, working on issues before the PC considers them. This intelligence function is important not only for its role in supporting policy but also for the insights it gives to intelligence officials about the possible courses of policy being considered. Such support requires substantive knowledge of the issues being discussed. The DNI or the principal deputy DNI is the intelligence participant at PCs and DCs. They now rely primarily on national intelligence officers for analytic support. A great deal of this work involves the coordination of papers and the assembling of briefing books. It is a necessary activity but perhaps not one that should be carried out by the NIC, whose primary job is to prepare NIEs. Under the DCIs, this role was carried out by support staff in the CIA. Some have suggested that, over time, the DNI’s reliance on the CIA’s DI may create pressure to shift the DI from CIA to the DNI. This would be a major change, which would mirror the British structure.
Much depends on how DNIs choose to define their role. As Judge Richard Posner has pointed out (Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11, 2005), the DNI can function as the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief operating officer (COO) of the intelligence community. The CEO function will keep the DNI at a higher, community level. The COO function will get the DNI more involved in details. The preliminary indicators are that the DNI is being forced into the chief operating function by virtue of such daily demands as the PDB, PCs, and DCs.
Negroponte functioned like a CEO. McConnell appears to have a more direct approach. The DNI’s relationship with the director of the NCTC is also important. The director of the NCTC has almost autonomous status. This director is appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and serves as the principal adviser to the DNI on analysis and operations related to terrorism and counterterrorism. Under the mission manager system now being used for key issues, and first recommended in 2005 by the WMD Commission (formally the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction), the director of the NCTC is the mission manager for terrorism intelligence. Given the primacy of terrorism as a national security issue, the director of NCTC is likely