ACCESSION NUMBER:382900
FILE ID:PO1101
DATE:03/13/95
TITLE:CLINTON CALLS CHOICE TO HEAD CIA "INNOVATIVE" THINKER (03/13/95)
TEXT:*95031301.PO1
CLINTON CALLS CHOICE TO HEAD CIA "INNOVATIVE" THINKER
(Profile: Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch) (910)
By Alexander M. Sullivan
USIA White House Correspondent
Washington -- John Deutch, President Clinton's choice to head the
intelligence community, is an aggressive technocrat who moves easily
between government and the private sector.
Deutch also demonstrates "the kind of innovative thinking we need to meet
the new challenges" of the post-Cold War era, Clinton said in announcing
the nomination March 11.
If confirmed by the Senate, Deutch, who currently serves as deputy defense
secretary, will take the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency -- an
organization seeking to define its role in a new world far removed from
Cold War realities. In the aftermath of the Aldrich Ames spy scandal, the
agency is seeking to determine how employees ignored warning signs of what
appears to be the worst betrayal in CIA history. It is fighting the
morale-crushing effects of downsizing, trying to decide what role it will
play in a multi-polar world and is being scrutinized by several oversight
congressional panels charged with determining the future of the
intelligence community in the United States.
Clinton announced that Deutch will have Cabinet rank as CIA director and
will integrate intelligence data more tightly into the formulation of
national security policy. This is not business as usual for the Director
of the Central Intelligence Agency (DCI); only the late CIA Director
William Casey occupied a similar position in government.
Clinton said he attaches "the highest personal priority" to enhancing the
nation's capacity to gather and analyze intelligence data, and "to make
that commitment absolutely clear," the president asserted, he will name
Deutch "to my Cabinet if he is confirmed" as DCI.
It has been the task of the DCI -- who has nominal supervision over the
intelligence arms of the U.S. military and the National Security Agency --
to collect and analyze data and present it to policy-makers in the White
House, the National Security Council and the State Department.
At the Pentagon, Deutch developed a close relationship with Clinton, taking
a leading role in reviewing the U.S. nuclear force posture and overseeing
1odernization of weapons systems. Clinton said Deutch had "become
intimately familiar with the workings of the intelligence community" by
working out a "blueprint" to eliminate duplication between civilian and
military intelligence operations. The president said that type of
achievement "demonstrates the kind of innovative thinking we need to meet
the new challenges" of the post-Cold War world.
Deutch has been a chemistry professor at Princeton University, provost of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), an under secretary of
energy in the Carter administration, a member of the Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board in the Bush administration, as well as under secretary and
deputy secretary of defense under Clinton. He also has served with the
National Science Foundation, as an overseer of the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston, as a trustee of Wellesley College and member of the Trilateral
Commission. He is a graduate of Amherst College and earned degrees in
chemical engineering and physical chemistry from M.I.T.
As far as intelligence responsibilities are concerned, Deutch is a reluctant
participant who once before told Clinton he preferred to remain at the
Defense Department rather than accept the DCI nomination. He reportedly
agreed to take the post the second time it was offered after being assured
of Cabinet level input.
White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry told reporters March 13 that
Deutch, while he "will not play a policy-making role," will be seated at
the decision-making table with "the best available facts and... analysis,"
which will be "critical as the administration addresses the challenges
America faces in this new world."
Clinton, he added, thinks Cabinet rank will "add significance to the
intelligence function during foreign policy deliberations."
McCurry said Clinton decided to elevate the post to Cabinet status "to help
bring the intelligence-gathering function to the table as foreign policy is
discussed within the White House. It is a reflection of the president's
view that in the new world that we live in the information that we need to
make the right decisions becomes very, very important and Dr. Deutch, as
someone who will be the chief analyst of that information, will be able to
contribute from that perspective to the discussions under way."
The president selected Deutch after the withdrawal of the nomination of
Michael Carns, a retired Air Force general chosen by Clinton after James
Woolsey resigned as DCI. Stating that he did not wish to subject his
family to trial in the press, Carns withdrew from consideration after it
was disclosed that he had inadvertently broken U.S. immigration law by
helping a relative of a former employee enter the United States.
"The sad truth," Clinton said in accepting Carns' withdrawal, "is that we
live in a time when even the most exemplary individuals are deterred from
serving by the fear that their records will be distorted...their
achievements ignored and...their families maligned during the confirmation
process."
McCurry noted that Deutch has been through the Senate's confirmation process
twice in recent months, most recently last year when confirmed as the
second-ranking person in the Defense Department "so that most of the
material and background (data) is relatively current and was in the hands
of the Senate fairly recently. Whatever additional information is
necessary, we will gather."
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