BAFFLING BLAIR - AT 9:55 A.M. ET:  We've been reporting on the bizarre choice of Saudi and China worshipper Charles Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council, a choice finally derailed by rising opposition.  The pick was made by intelligence czar Dennis Blair, a former four-star admiral.  It turns out Freeman isn't his only weird personnel choice.  From Newsweek:

Now both Republican and Democratic intel experts are raising questions about another Blair pick: John Deutch, a former CIA director once accused of major security lapses, who's been appointed to a temporary panel reviewing troubled, top-secret spy-satellite programs.

After Deutch resigned as CIA director in 1996, agency officials discovered he had stored hundreds of pages of classified files on his home computers, despite repeated warnings that they could be intercepted via the Internet. Because of the incident, Deutch was stripped of his high-level security clearances, and a criminal probe into the matter culminated in January 2001, when the ex-spy chief agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of mishandling classified material. (The next day, Clinton, in one of his final acts as president, pardoned him.)

COMMENT:  Blair's judgment needs work.  Another mistake and there will clearly be calls for him to be replaced.

March 15, 2009