got geoint?

Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post from got geoint? As always, the weeks are flying by and before you know it, the dog days of summer will be behind us. So, hopefully, you find time to read our popular FFT posts that will help you slow things down a bit…perhaps a little time for reflection? Not necessarily a bad thing in today’s fast-paced world. So, for this week’s FFT post theme, we thought we would analyze Senator McCain’s strong-arming method for holding up the Clapper nomination. But something just came off of the presses late in the day yesterday that trumped everything: Presidental nominee James R. Clapper was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to become the next Director of National Intelligence. Huge, huge, huge news! Read on to learn more and happy Friday!

Clapper Confirmed as Director of National Intelligence
Presidental nominee James R. Clapper was unanimously confirmed by the Senate yesterday to become the next Director of National Intelligence. Clapper, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who most recently served as director of military intelligence and as undersecretary of defense for intelligence, will take over for Dennis C. Blair and will oversee the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies. “As we face evolving security threats and continue to build an integrated intelligence enterprise, the Intelligence Community and the nation are extremely fortunate to have such a distinguished leader at the helm,” stated Acting Director of National Intelligence David C. Gompert. Read the full ExecutiveGov post here.

Clapper Is Confirmed as Intelligence Czar After a Round of Senate Deal-Making
The Obama Administration’s somewhat drawn-out campaign to appoint a new National Intelligence Director came to a successful conclusion today as retired Gen. James Clapper was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Three Senate Republicans, including two Senate Intelligence Committee members, signaled they might try to hold up a final Senate floor vote on the nomination. Two Congressional sources, who asked for anonymity when discussing a politically sensitive topic, said that the last-minute threats were related to efforts to extract concessions from the Obama Administration on intelligence-related matters which were not necessarily related directly to Clapper himself. Read the full Newsweek blog post here.

Come back next week for our normal pop culture-infused Friday’s Food for Thought post! Happy weekend and congratulation to General Clapper!

Tags: Clapper as Director of National Intelligence, Clapper Confirmation, DNI, General Clapper, GEOINT 2010, got geoint?, ODNI, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, USGIF