US: President Bush yesterday named Mr John Negroponte, currently the American ambassador in Iraq, to be the first US national intelligence director, with oversight of all 15 US spy agencies.
Mr Negroponte (65) is a former US ambassador to the United Nations and was at the heart of the Bush administration's drive to convince the world body that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Bush chose the career foreign service officer for the job of ambassador to Baghdad last April. Mr Negroponte took over from US administrator Paul Bremer hours after the handover of sovereignty to Iraq's interim government.
Mr Bush had originally resisted creating the post of national intelligence director, which was a major recommendation of the bipartisan commission that investigated intelligence failures before September 11th.
Yesterday he conceded: "If we're going to stop the terrorists before they strike, we must ensure that our intelligence agencies work as a single, unified enterprise."
Mr Bush dodged a question about possible conflict between Mr Negroponte and the Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, whose department has its own intelligence-gathering agencies.
Asked if he would back Mr Negroponte over Mr Rumsfeld on budget matters, Mr Bush said: "The press sometimes likes to play discussions inside the White House, you know, X versus Y, you know, butting of heads and sharp elbows", but that was not the way it always works.
Mr Negroponte, a formidable diplomatic figure, is fluent in French, Greek, Vietnamese and Spanish. Questions about his record on human rights as US ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985 delayed his Senate confirmation as US ambassador to the UN in 2001, but they were dropped after September 11th.
As ambassador to Honduras Mr Negroponte strengthened the military dictatorship of Gen Gustavo Alvarez at a time when scores of political opponents were disappearing. He has since said he did not believe death squads operated in Honduras during his time as US ambassador.
Mr Bush said Mr Negroponte's service in Iraq "has given him something that will prove an incalculable advantage for an intelligence chief: an unvarnished and up-close look at a deadly enemy". Responding to concerns that the new intelligence chief would not have access or budgetary power, Mr Bush said that while Mr Negroponte's office would be outside the White House, he would brief the President every day on intelligence matters.
"He will have access on a daily basis in that he'll be my primary briefer," he said.
The President said the director of the CIA would report directly to Mr Negroponte, which is a demotion for the spy service - whose former boss George Tenet reported to Mr Bush daily - which has suffered a loss of prestige over pre-September 11th intelligence failures and the hyping of weapons of mass destruction.
"The CIA will retain its core of responsibilities for collecting human intelligence, analysing intelligence from all sources, and supporting American interests abroad at the direction of the president," Mr Bush said.
"The new structure will help ensure greater information-sharing among federal departments and agencies and also with appropriate state and local authorities."
The appointment came as something of a surprise in the intelligence community where former CIA director Robert Gates was believed to be Mr Bush's first choice, but he reportedly declined the post.