Facing a Rift, U.S. Spy Chief to Step Down

Dennis C. Blair, whose often tumultuous tenure as director of national intelligence was marked by frequent clashes with White House officials and other spy chiefs in America’s still fractured intelligence apparatus, announced Thursday that he was resigning.
His exit after little more than a year comes as the White House is facing thorny decisions about Iran’s nuclear program, the future of Afghanistan and the spread of militancy from Pakistan’s tribal areas. It also fuels new doubts about the success, and wisdom, of the major intelligence overhaul in 2004 that created the spymaster position.
The White House did not announce Thursday who would succeed Mr. Blair, but a senior administration official said the likely candidate was James R. Clapper Jr., a retired Air Force lieutenant general and the Pentagon’s top intelligence official. Mr. Blair’s replacement will be the fourth intelligence director in five years.
The departure of Mr. Blair, a retired admiral, had been rumored for months, but was made official when President Obama called him Thursday and asked him to step down.
Mr. Blair’s relationship with the White House was rocky since the start of the Obama administration, and he fought a rear-guard action against efforts by the Central Intelligence Agency to cut down the size and power of the national intelligence director’s staff. He is the first high-ranking member of the Obama national security team to depart.
Mr. Blair’s departure could strengthen the hand of the C.I.A operatives, who have bristled at directives from Mr. Blair’s office. In recent months, Mr. Blair has been outspoken about reining in the C.I.A.’s covert activities, citing their propensity to backfire and tarnish America’s image.
The administration has largely embraced the C.I.A. operations, especially the agency’s campaign to kill militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas with drone aircraft.
Born out of the intelligence debacle before the Iraq war, the intelligence director’s post was intended to force greater cooperation within a hidebound intelligence bureaucracy, and to ensure that America’s spies were better equipped to prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Yet most intelligence experts agree that the job has been troubled from the start, having little actual power over the operations and budget of a sprawling intelligence infrastructure that the Pentagon and C.I.A. still dominate. The vast majority of America’s annual intelligence budget, nearly $50 billion, is spent on spy satellites and high-tech listening devices under Pentagon control.
In a statement released Thursday evening, Mr. Blair praised intelligence operatives for working “tirelessly to provide intelligence support for two wars and to prevent an attack on our homeland.”
In a statement Thursday, Mr. Obama praised Mr. Blair for “a remarkable record of service to the United States,” and said he had “served with great integrity, intellect, and commitment to our country and the values that we hold dear.”
Officials said that Mr. Obama called Mr. Blair on Thursday to ask for his resignation, but that the two men had several discussions in person about the subject this week. Their relationship has been characterized as professional but not close, and some administration officials said Mr. Blair often felt cut out of discussions about important security matters.
Tensions among the White House, the intelligence director and Congressional oversight committees escalated after a young Nigerian man nearly detonated a bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight on Dec. 25. White House officials openly criticized Mr. Blair and his staff for a litany of missed signals that could have prevented the man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, from boarding the plane.
They laid particular blame on the National Counterterrorism Center, one agency that Mr. Blair supervises. A report released this week by the Senate Intelligence Committee was particularly critical of the NCTC’s failures to piece together the information that could have put Mr. Abdulmutallab on a “no-fly” list.
American officials said that Mr. Blair had also angered the White House in recent months by pushing for closer intelligence ties to France, an arrangement opposed by Mr. Obama.
Some intelligence experts and Republican lawmakers say they believe that the White House has tried to micromanage America’s spy agencies, and there was a particularly tense relationship between Mr. Blair and John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism director.
But Mr. Blair also fought battles inside the intelligence ranks. Last summer, he clashed with Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, over the appointment of the senior American spies overseas. Mr. Panetta went so far as to issue a memorandum to C.I.A. operatives telling them to disregard a directive that Mr. Blair had sent a day earlier.
Mr. Blair, a Navy officer for decades, considered Mr. Panetta’s move an act of insubordination, intelligence officials said.

Smallville Seasons 1-9 DVD Boxset


Detailed DVD Info
Category:
Action Adventure Drama Sci-Fi Thriller
Name:Smallville
Season:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
TV Series Release Date:16 October 2001
Aspect Ratio:1.78: 1
Sound Mix: Stereo
Language:English With Removable Subtitles
Format:Support Both NTSC and PAL
Discs:58 pcs

TV Series Info
Leading Role: Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Annette O'Toole, John Glover, John Schneider, Erica DuranceDirector: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
Screenshot from Smallville DVD Box Set


Plot Summary
Smallville is an American television series developed by writers/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The television series was initially broadcast by The WB, premiering on October 16, 2001. After its fifth season, The WB and UPN merged to form The CW, which is the current broadcaster for the show in the United States.The longest-running comic book based series in television history, Smallville began its ninth season on September 25, 2009,and was renewed for its tenth and final season on March 4, 2010.The series follows the adventures of Clark Kent (Tom Welling), who resides in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, during the years before he becomes Superman. The first four seasons focused on Clark and his friends' high school years. Since season five, the show has ventured into more adult settings, eventually focusing on his career at the Daily Planet, as well as introducing other DC comic book superheroes and villains.

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