McConnell To Direct Intelligence; Nuclear Agency Chief Is Fired
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — President Bush has chosen a 25-year intelligence veteran, retired Vice Admiral Michael McConnell, to be the country’s second national intelligence director as he reshapes national security strategy with two years left in his presidency.
The current director, career diplomat John Negroponte, will move into the long-vacant job as top deputy to Secretary of State Rice.
The nominations were expected to be announced Friday by Mr. Bush, a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision was not yet public.
Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman yesterday dismissed the chief of the country’s nuclear weapons program because of security breakdowns at the Los Alamos, N.M., laboratory and other facilities.
Linton Brooks said he would leave in two weeks to three weeks as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a post he held since July 2002.
Mr. Bodman said the nuclear agency under Mr. Brooks, a former ambassador and arms control negotiator, had not adequately fixed security problems.
