The man who asked Chas Freeman to be chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Dennis Blair is the subject of an important piece by James Kirchick in the new issue of The New Republic. In addition to the Freeman failure, Blair’s other problems include: An unworkable relationship with the C.I.A., a history of ignoring orders from above, and (the biggest problem) the responsibility of the massive failure that allowed the ‘panty bomber,’ Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, onto a U.S.-bound airplane on Christmas Day.
Blair is currently the director of national intelligence (DNI), a bureaucracy meant to wade through the intelligence bureaucracies below it, so that intelligence gathered can be utilized correctly to protect Americans. With stakes high, as the panty bomber proved a couple weeks back, a man like Blair should not have such responsibility. He has proven time again to possess poor judgment. Some highlights from Kirchick’s piece:
