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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!

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope everyone had a restful weekend and are geared up for a productive work week. What does this week have in store for us? Well, our crystal ball is a bit fuzzy this morning, but we expect it won’t be as crazy as last week — with the Washington Post story, Clapper confirmation hearing and more — but one never knows. We do know that this weeks MMNKO post has some very compelling news — from more Clapper confirmation news to a story of a meteorite crater being found via Google Earth. So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on!

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President Obama’s choice to ride herd on U.S. spy agencies boasted yesterday he is no “hood ornament,” and has the clout to stop turf wars. “I would not have agreed to take this position on if I were going to be a titular figurehead or a hood ornament,” retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee at his confirmation hearing. Obama nominated Clapper, a career intelligence officer, to replace retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair as director of National Intelligence, coordinating the efforts of the sprawling intelligence community. Check out the full NY Daily News article here. Also, been a crazy week for the IC. First we had the Washington Post article, then Clapper’s confirmation hearing…what is next? Stay tuned, and be sure to check out our Friday’s Food for Thought post this week.

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We hope our readers are enjoying the access to the GEOINT 2009 keynote videos. Our intention is to provide a forum for those to re-capture key moments from the event, as well as allow for those who could not attend GEOINT 2009, the opportunity to catch up on presentations that shape the GEOINT community. This morning, we are running the keynote from Mr. Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) who 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.

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Welcome once again to the Friday’s Food for Thought post. Before we dive into this post, we want to know if you have booked your travel for GEOINT 2009? As many of you saw, we just announced that the new DNI, Dennis Blair, will be speaking, along with Bruce Carlson, the new director of the NRO. Don’t you want to hear their strategic plans for the intelligence community? Speaking of community, we thought that would make an excellent theme for today’s post. We always hear the term “intelligence community” and we hope to dive deeper into the concept of community, and just how important we all are to each other. Consider this post an extension of last week’s FFT post on family. Scroll down and enjoy.

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The troubled waters of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) may be calmed if Dennis Blair, director of National Intelligence, is successful in a new effort to revamp spy agency. The DNI has recently pulled together a panel of high-level intelligence experts to pretty much examine examine every facet of the NRO, including its mission, charter, staffing, requirements, organization, funding and relationship to other organizations.

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My how the times have changed. While climate change was not necessarily a priority for the previous administration, for the Obama team, it is top-of-mind. So much so that the defense and intelligence leaders are acknowledging and even anticipating climate change as being a long-term and significant threat to national security — according to the Christian Science Monitor.

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It’s official. As of yesterday, Mike McConnell is no longer the Director of National Intelligence. According the DNI’s press office, Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess, Jr. is temporarily serving as acting DNI. Burgess is to become the next director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. It made sense that he would submit his resignation, since it was announced on the same day that he would be rejoining Booz Allen.

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Booz Allen Hamilton just releases this press release announcing that the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, will be rejoining Booz Allen once his tenure is up. Below is the press release from Booz Allen, and here’s Washington Technology’s coverage of this story:

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Hope everyone had a productive and eventful week. I believe many of us were tied up in inaugural events earlier in the week — with the latter part of the week focused on getting some work done (and recovering from all the inaugural-related activity). Today’s Friday’s Food for Thought, as always, is full of a mixture of news and topics — from cool iPhone apps to Dennis Blair’s statement to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

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