By Jonathan S. Landay
The Virginian-Pilot
WASHINGTON — The nation’s top intelligence officer, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, announced his resignation Thursday after months of friction and repeated duels with White House officials.
The retired Navy admiral gave no reason for his departure in his public statement, which he circulated to the 16 intelligence agencies that he oversees, nor did he express thanks to President Barack Obama for the opportunity to serve in his administration.
A U.S. official indicated that Obama had asked Blair to resign, saying that a job search for a successor was already well under way.
The White House has “been interviewing several strong candidates to be his replacement,” said the U.S. official, who declined to elaborate. The official requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
“Dennis Blair has a remarkable record of service to the United States, and I am grateful for his leadership as Director of National Intelligence,” Obama said in a statement Thursday evening. “Over the course of many decades, Admiral Blair has served with great integrity, intellect, and commitment to our country and the values that we hold dear.”
Among the possible candidates to succeed Blair are retired Air Force Gen. James Clapper, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican who co-chairs the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board; and Marine Gen. James Cartwright, the deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Blair’s resignation follows intelligence lapses over the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner and the unsuccessful plot to detonate an SUV filled with explosives and propane in Times Square in Manhattan earlier this month.
The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a report Tuesday cataloging 14 intelligence failures that led up to the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 allegedly by a 23-year-old al-Qaida operative from Nigeria using plastic explosives hidden in his underwear.
The list included failures inside the intelligence community to share information that was known about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s links to the al-Qaida branch in Yemen and his extremist views before he boarded the flight in Amsterdam.
Blair has served as director of national intelligence since January 2009, and has provided Obama with his morning intelligence briefing most days of the week. He served in the Navy for 34 years and was chief of the U.S. Pacific Command during the Sept. 11 attacks
Blair will be the highest official to resign from the administration since Obama was sworn in.
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