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 Публикации /
Obama nominates Clapper to head spy agencies |
Obama nominates Clapper to head spy agencies
05.06.10 19:58
Автор:msnbc.com news services
President Barack Obama has nominated the Pentagon's top intelligence official to head the nation's 16 spy agencies.
Obama, who announced the appointment in the White House Rose Garden, urged the U.S. Senate to confirm Clapper swiftly. Clapper needs Senate approval before he can take the job.
Clapper, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and a retired three-star Air Force general, would replace Dennis Blair, who stepped down from the job last month in the first major shake-up of Obama's national security team.
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"He possesses a quality that I value in all my advisers: a willingness to tell leaders what we need to know even if it's not what we want to hear."
The post Clapper is taking over was created by President George W. Bush in 2004 in a reorganization of the intelligence bureaucracy to fill shortcomings in interagency collaboration exposed by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Blair was ousted amid mounting domestic security concerns following a failed car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square on May 1 and the botched attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day.
Obama says he'll be counting on Clapper to ensure that the U.S. has the most capable and efficient intelligence operations as possible. The president says the U.S. has struck blows to al-Qaida's leadership. But he says the U.S. needs to do even better — especially in light of the bombing plot against a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas.
Clapper said at the White House on Saturday that he was humbled, honored and daunted by his new responsibilities.
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