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President Obama has asked his Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair to step down. As director of National intelligence, Blair was responsible for collation of intelligence among the 16 intelligence agencies that the US has. The recent shooting at Fort Hood and the intelligence failure surrounding the failed Times Square bombing in New York are said to be behind Blair's resignation. This is the first high-level resignation in the Obama administration.
Blair resigned on Friday, in the aftermath of a scathing report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence over the handling of the Christmas Day Bombing plot.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, it was found that the lack of co-ordination among intelligence agencies had been one of the major reason for the attackers going unnoticed. The office of the director of National intelligence mooted to oversee the sharing of intel among various agencies.
Blair has been blamed for lapses which include not paying heed to Major Nidal Malik's email exchanges with Al Qaeda functionary Anwar-Al-Awlaki, to which Blair had access due to his position as DNI.
The Christmas day bombing plot where Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow himself up on a flight to Detroit was also attributed to Blair as Abdulmutallab's father had warned the US embassy about his son and had him placed on a 'no-fly' list.
Blair, a decorated Navy admiral was brought in by the Obama Administration to streamline the intelligence sharing between the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency, the main intelligence agencies in the US. Blair's constant war of words with CIA Director Leon Panetta and Obama's counter-terrorism chief John Brennan had not gone down too well with the administration.
The Office of the DNI has been plagued with unease as even Blair's predecessors--John Negroponte and John McConell-- struggled to get a grip on the job. The Obama administration indicated that they were interviewing candidates for the post.
Image: Dennis Blair | Photograph: Richard Clement/Reuters