Sept. 11 Commission Official Selected To Head U.S. National Intelligence Council
Sept. 11 Commission official selected to head US National Intelligence Council
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/p...,4408579.story
PAMELA HESS | Associated Press Writer
3:21 PM CDT, May 21, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair has tapped the deputy director of the Sept. 11 Commission to head the top U.S. office for intelligence analysis.
Christopher Kojm will chair the National Intelligence Council, which oversees the analysis and production of interagency intelligence reports. That includes national intelligence estimates, documents that feature the consensus of analysis on critical national security issues. NIE's are the intelligence agencies' most comprehensive statements and are meant to be unvarnished and apolitical.
Kojm helped produce the bipartisan and best-selling report by the Sept. 11 Commission, which delved into the intelligence failures that contributed to the success of the 2001 terrorist attacks. He was also a senior adviser to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
"He understands how important quality intelligence is to the policymaking process, and he understands the critical need for intelligence to be timely, relevant and objective. He will be an outstanding NIC chairman," Blair said in a statement.
Blair's first choice, Charles Freeman, bowed out of consideration two months ago under congressional criticism for his public comments about Israel and allegations about his ties to foreign governments.
