Oversight and Threats

Oversight of the right kind does nothing but good for the intelligence community,Dennis Blair stated.I will be leaning forward on the side of consulting more,rather than consulting less.The greatest threats do lie in that convergence of stateless individuals with weapons of mass destruction.The scientist A.Q. Khan,who shared nuclear secrets with North Korea and others,is restricted by the Pakistani government,Mr.Blair pointed out.He's not the head of a nuclear lab as he was before.Mr.Blair,a retired U.S. Navy admiral,was Commander,U.S. Pacific Command,from 1999-2002.He speaks in a deliberate way and has a military haircut.The members of the House Intelligence Committee seemed to have a lot of respect for him.

A Cybernetic Problem

We need to have open discussions of some of the cyber attacks that have occurred worldwide,DNI Blair continued.This has to be a public-private partnership.The owners of most of the servers and fiber optical cables are private.I'd like to take in some business executives to work on the inside with their knowledge of the outside,the intelligence chief confided to the members of Congress.

Special Access:The National Intelligence Director

President Barack Obama has planned to retire Cold War era military assets in order to save money.In consequence,National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair says we face some tough decisions about electro-optical systems from that era.Today's enemy is hard to find,easy to kill;the Cold War enemy was easy to find,hard to kill.Today's enemy requires a different kind of intelligence system.As well,we have to get the National Security Agency involved in protecting the larger body-in cyber defense,Mr.Blair remarked to the House Intelligence Committee.As DNI,Mr.Blair oversees all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.The post was created after the 9-11 attacks.John Negroponte,the first DNI,was his predecessor.Mr.Blair has expressed concern that economic developments pose a threat to national security that even exceeds that of terrorism at the present time.