Wednesday, October 21. 2009

Director of National Intelligence Addresses #GEOINT Audience - Why?

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Dennis Blair, addressed the GEOINT Symposium audience this morning in a keynote address. Blair is the person responsible for the coordination of intelligence information between the various intelligence agencies in the U.S. government. The purpose of his presentation was to brief the audience on the four goals of the DNI:

1. To enable wise national security policies and give a clear picture of the facts on the ground from around the world.
2. Support effective national security action once the administration makes a decision to deploy troops or other teams (NGO’s, etc.) and to provide these teams with information to be effective in the field.
3. Provide technological innovation.
4. Work as a single integrated team – sharing information and skills. Basically, the DNI serves as a coordinator to balance intelligence for military requirements with cost and risk.

These are wonderful goals and perhaps need to be articulated to some. However, I find this type of presentation to be of little value as a whole. It is great PR but serves little to advance the dialog among the attendees. I think the charter of the DNI is well defined but most of his job is done in the "dark" anyway. To address a public forum seems counter to his role as an intelligence officer and, frankly, isn’t necessary.  This information can be easily conveyed through other sources and seems somewhat a waste of the director’s time (and taxpayer money) to try and articulate his functional role. Finally, he just isn't going to divulge information to this audience that is "news."

I can only imagine his job is difficult enough in trying to break down barriers of intelligence gathering among entrenched agency culture without having to determine what is or isn't appropriate in a public forum.