Word: rumsfeldism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that established the DNI is, Negroponte's ability to actually do that is an open question. In fact, his position puts him smack in the middle of what could be the nastiest bureaucratic battle in Washington for years to come: a tussle over money with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, considered an almost unmatched infighter. Until now, Rumsfeld controlled roughly 80% of total intelligence spending, but now that control will have to be shared...
...Force Lieut. General Michael Hayden, who has overseen electronic eavesdropping and code breaking for the intelligence community as chief of the highly secretive National Security Agency for the past six years. Diminutive and bookish in appearance, Hayden, 59, has already shown himself willing to stand up to Rumsfeld. A former senior U.S. official told TIME that while Rumsfeld made it clear that he thought Hayden, who supported intelligence reform after 9/11 and the Iraqi WMD fiasco, "was not right-thinking on these matters," Hayden nevertheless testified to Congress in favor of serious reform last August. "It was very clear that...
...persuade members of the necessity of war against Iraq. His U.N. tenure may soon seem like a picnic compared with his next assignment. In part owing to the White House's reservations about making drastic changes, the bill establishing the DNI was written with more than enough ambiguity for Rumsfeld and Goss to exploit if they so choose. For instance, the White House resisted giving the new intelligence czar so-called tasking authority over the CIA director, according to one expert, meaning that in practice, Negroponte can't, say, order up CIA action...
While nominally handing massive new budget powers to the DNI, the law also makes clear that he will not "abrogate the statutory responsibilities" of any existing intelligence-related agency. That could be used by the Pentagon to justify holding onto the purse strings. Because of Rumsfeld's reluctance to challenge Bush's authority directly, it's unlikely Rumsfeld will openly take on Negroponte, but that does not mean he won't assert his will in more subtle ways, such as keeping him out of the loop on small budget issues or stonewalling him on information requests...
...committed to defending Taiwan if it is attacked without provocation. Put all that together, and you've got a spot that is definitively hot. Yet when news broke last week that the draft of a communiqué by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, together with their Japanese counterparts, mildly identified "peaceful resolution of issues concerning the Taiwan Strait" as a "common strategic objective" of the U.S. and Japan, the news rolled round Asia like a thunderclap coming out of a clear blue...