Who is Stephen Cambone?

[Robbien]

by Peter Ogden
July 20, 2004

. . .

The position of undersecretary of defense for intelligence is the newest senior Defense Department position, and its establishment fundamentally alters the structure of the intelligence community as a whole. Devised by Donald Rumsfeld, it places all of the Pentagon's formerly independent intelligence units – the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, each of the armed services' intelligence divisions, and others – under the auspices of a single official.

Though without operational authority per se, the undersecretary – or defense intelligence czar, as the position is known – wields tremendous power though his mandate to set the intelligence-gathering agenda and oversee budget allocation. According to a memo circulated by Paul Wolfowitz in May, 2003, the OUSD-I will "provide oversight and policy guidance for all DoD intelligence activities… provide policy oversight for all the intelligence organizations within DoD."

As intelligence expert Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists recently told the New Republic, the effect of creating this new position is "to shift the intelligence community's center of gravity further into the Pentagon." "Shift," however, is surely understates what has transpired. The OUSD-I now coordinates 85 percent of the United States' total intelligence budget; the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), in contrast, manages only 12 percent.

This shake up in the intelligence community took place quietly in early 2003, beneath the din of the impending invasion of Iraq. Cambone's confirmation hearing on February 27h was a cursory affair that attracted virtually no media attention – the New York Times didn't mention Cambone in his new capacity for over a month. Nevertheless, people inside the Pentagon who knew Stephen Cambone immediately saw this nomination for what it was: the culmination of Rumsfeld's efforts to politicize intelligence gathering and analysis.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=124725

The whole article is a great read. Further along there is this statement:

According to the Washington Post, an Army general joked to a Hill staffer that "if he had one round left in his revolver, he would take out Steve Cambone."

[Miss Authoritiva]

1. So they hustled in the defense intelligence czar through the side door.

"Cambone's confirmation hearing on February 27h was a cursory affair that attracted virtually no media attention – the New York Times didn't mention Cambone in his new capacity for over a month."

Whenever the media goes into its obsessed mode -- in this case, the run up to the Iraq war -- I always wonder what's not being covered. Well now I know what wasn't being covered on February 27, 2003.

[gottaB]

2. Who is Stephen Cambone? An unindicted war criminal.

eom