Negroponte to State

By Michael J.W. Stickings

John Negroponte, former ambassador to the U.N. and Iraq, and elsewhere, will be leaving his position as director of national intelligence, the country's top intelligence official, to become deputy secretary of state, the #2 in the State Department, the Times is reporting. Which seems to make very little sense, given that his current position is more senior than his future one. Why is he willing to make the move? Is he unhappy as DNI? If so, why? What does his move say about the position of DNI? Is it an impotent one? Regardless, he'll now be deeply involved with Iraq, specifically with Bush's "new" Iraq strategy, soon to be announced. That may be the reason. Perhaps he thinks he can do more at State with respect to Iraq than as Bush's chief briefer on intelligence.

Good luck with that. (I don't think the "new" strategy, such as it is one, will work, but at least Negroponte knows more about Iraq, and about pretty much everything else, than the warmongers in and around Bush's bubble.)