A new spymaster—and a powerful one

President Bush has chosen John Negroponte, currently ambassador to Iraq, as America’s first director of national intelligence. The choice of Mr Negroponte indicates that the newly created job will have real power

JOHN NEGROPONTE is tough. There can be no doubt that the man George Bush has chosen as America's first director of national intelligence is a survivor and a fighter. Mr Negroponte, whose nomination was announced by Mr Bush on Thursday February 17th, has been accused of abetting torture and murder in Central America during the 1980s. He was ambassador to the United Nations during the run-up to the Iraq war and is currently America’s ambassador to a violence-torn Iraq. To many he is a tarnished figure—but his critics have been able only to watch him rise through the ranks from one hard job to another.
He will need to draw on all his experience of fighting—both the diplomatic and the literal sort—for his hardest job yet. Legislation passed in December created the post. America’s 15 intelligence agencies were seen as competing rather than co-operating, and the special commission that investigated the September 11th 2001 attacks determined that better coordination might have been able to forestall the tragedy. Congress, under pressure from the commission and the September 11th victims’ families, duly created the powerful post of the DNI.