[1]The White House on Friday declined to give detailed reasons for pushing aside America’s spy czar Dennis Blair, insisting that US President Barack Obama had simply decided it was time for a change.
Amid claims by Republicans that the US intelligence community is in disarray, the White House said Mr Blair had made important contributions in what it said was the second toughest job — after President — in Washington.
“The President decided to make a change, I will let that speak for itself,” the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, declining to answer questions about exactly why Mr Obama lost confidence in his director of national intelligence. “The President believes that, at this point, a transition in who that person is, is the best for the country.”
Mr Gibbs praised Mr Blair for focusing attention on counter-terrorism and Afghanistan during his short 16-month tenure, after the director of national intelligence (DNI) told Mr Obama that he would resign in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday. “I think the job is very challenging. I think director Blair took on a number of those challenges that the law and the job presented,” Mr Gibbs said.
Mr Blair faced heavy criticism after the attempt by an Al Qaeda-linked group to bring down a US airliner on December 25 and some of the 16 US intelligence agencies he coordinates also came under fire over the Fort Hood massacre in November, and the attempted Times Square bombing in May. Some Republicans, however, charged that Mr Blair had been made a scapegoat for wider administration flaws on intelligence, and used the shake-up to open a new row on national security with the White House.
Mr Blair’s departure, which had been rumoured for weeks, suddenly became fact on Thursday after he met Mr Obama, and news broke that he would be leaving. An official said on Thursday that even before the encounter, Mr Obama had interviewed several “strong” candidates for Mr Blair’s job.
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