Gates Picks Intelligence Undersecretary

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has chosen a career military intelligence officer, retired Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., to be undersecretary of defense for intelligence, according to administration officials.

Clapper, who retired in June after five years as director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), ran the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) during the 1990s, and handled Air Force intelligence during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

A senior intelligence official yesterday confirmed that Gates had chosen Clapper but added: "The White House has the final say." On Capitol Hill, a spokesperson for Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), incoming chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said the staff had unofficially been told of Clapper as Gates's choice, but added that "nothing official has been sent to the senator." Maj. Patrick Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, said that he could not confirm Clapper's choice, saying: "This is a presidential decision, which will come from the White House."

There was no comment late yesterday from the White House. Clapper did not return a call seeking comment.

Clapper would replace Stephen A. Cambone, who was the first person to hold the undersecretary for intelligence position, which was created by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in 2003 to coordinate the wide-ranging defense intelligence activities. While the director of national intelligence is the president's top intelligence advisor, the defense undersecretary coordinates the largest components of the intelligence community and almost 80 percent of the roughly $42 billion national intelligence budget.

Cambone was a close and longtime associate of Rumsfeld, but Clapper sometimes took positions opposite the secretary, such as in 2004 when he supported putting the NGA under the new director of national intelligence rather than within the Defense Department.

Staff writer Dafna Linzer contributed to this report.