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Yesterday, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair announced his resignation under pressure from the White House, ending a tumultuous 16-month tenure marked by intelligence failures and spy agency turf wars. Blair, a retired Navy admiral, is the third director of national intelligence, a position created in response to public outrage over the failure to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. His departure underscores the disorganization inside the Obama administration’s intelligence apparatus, rocked over the past six months by a spate of high-profile attempted terror attacks that revealed new national security lapses. And it comes two days after a stark Senate report criticized Blair’s office and other intelligence agencies for new failings that, despite a top-to-bottom overhaul of the U.S. intelligence apparatus after 9/11, allowed a would-be bomber to board a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. Here’s the official resignation statement. Read more from the AP here. We also have the AP video of this news in the post.

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Today, Mr. Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) took the stage at GEOINT 2009 and provided a comprehensive view of the recently released “The National Intelligence Strategy,” which sets out the guiding principles: responsive and incisive understanding of global threats and opportunities, coupled with an agility that brings to bear the Community’s capabilities. DNI Blair spent time highlighting the document’s goals and objectives and wrapped up the keynote with a history lesson in the Cuban Missile Crisis and how GEOINT played a critical role in resolving the historic confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Stay tuned for a video of his presentation.

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Last week, the new DNI delivered his first address to Congress, as well as provided the Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Below are some key threats that Blair highlighted. In addition, Walter Pincus of The Washington Post pointed out that Blair used more “moderate language” regarding Korea, where as the Bush administration used stronger, more pointed language. Here’s what Pincus wrote:

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