One major unaddressed question is what Negroponte will do about the FBI. The bureau's main priorities have changed sharply since Sept. 11, 2001, from investigating criminal activities to protecting the country from terrorist attacks and foreign intelligence operations. Counterterrorism, counterintelligence and intelligence analysis take up more than $3 billion of the FBI's $5.7 billion in Bush's proposed fiscal 2006 budget. That is up from $2.7 billion this year.
Under the new law, though little noticed by Congress, Negroponte will have authority "to determine" more than half the FBI's budget that falls under his jurisdiction.
"National security has swallowed the FBI," Beers said, "and while Negroponte may not face problems as fierce as those with Rumsfeld, the agents are likely to make a fight of it." Kerr, who continues to consult on intelligence matters with government agencies, said FBI agents are "going through a cultural change."
Webster, who was FBI director from 1978 to 1987, cautioned against trying to dictate to the bureau. "The law does not mean the DNI has a responsibility to second-guess what the FBI is doing beyond what is funded by him," he said.
The law, however, specifically gives the DNI authority to "establish requirements and priorities" for FBI wiretapping and physical searches within the United States undertaken under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It also says the DNI, if authorized by a presidential executive order, can launch and direct such operations.
As the first DNI, Negroponte has a chance to look at intelligence programs community-wide and decide whether expenditures are worth what is produced, according to several former officials. As Jack Downing, a legendary former CIA deputy director for operations, put it, "Nowhere could anyone tell me the value of the product of any collection program" of the various intelligence agencies.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, who worked in the Carter National Security Council and once headed the National Security Agency, agreed. "No one in the intelligence community has a clue what intelligence comes out based on the money being spent," he said.
However Negroponte begins, most of those interviewed said he would have a limited time to prove he is in charge. "I give him six months," Kerr said, " and if he hasn't made his mark by then, he will be like the White House drug czar, with no real power. And the intelligence community will operate as independent agencies."
