More Powerful than the C.I.A.?

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Obama to Name Retired General to Top Spy Post,” describes his new appointment of Lt. General James Clapper as director of national intelligence, a post designed to oversee 16 intelligence agencies including the Pentagon’s and the C.I.A.

The position has been relatively ineffectual in the past and was widely viewed as losing a power struggle with the C.I.A. recently over the ability to appoint station chiefs overseas. General Clapper will be the fourth person to have held the post since its creation in 2005.

The previous director, Dennis Blair, was viewed as forced out by President Obama after a series of terrorist attacks in the United States under his watch, including the Christmas Day bomber and the incident in Times Square. However, General Clapper was viewed as a secondary choice after Leon Panetta, the Director of the C.I.A., and former Senator Chuck Hagel refused.

Frankly, the problem with evaluation of intelligence agencies, and especially the director overseeing them all, involves an expectation of prescience over the actions of our enemies, a difficult if not impossible task to perform. The ability to prevent 100 percent of the attacks against us is well nigh impossible, and if one percent gets through, you are judged to be a failure.

General Clapper does have some impressive credentials, including a long history in the intelligence field, and a stint as Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence where he ran the Pentagon’s intelligence activities. He is also viewed as having an independent streak, having clashed in the past with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield.