Politico: Hagel, Boren tapped for intel board
By: Josh Gerstein
President Barack Obama has tapped two former senators, Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democrat David Boren of Oklahoma, to be the White House’s top outside advisers on intelligence matters, two White House officials said Wednesday.
Obama is scheduled to appear with Hagel and Boren Wednesday afternoon at the White House to make a formal announcement of their appointments as co-chairs of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
Hagel, a moderate who served 12 years in the Senate before choosing not to run for re-election last year, was briefly rumored as a possible vice presidential running mate for Obama. Later, Hagel was discussed as a possibility to add a Republican hue to Obama’s Cabinet by become Secretary of State or Defense.
Boren was the longest-serving chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee before he stepped down in 1994 to assume the presidency of the University of Oklahoma, which he still holds. A conservative Democrat, Boren has been an outspoken critic of increasing partisanship in Washington and has organized efforts to encourage politicians to bridge the partisan divide.
Historically, the intelligence panel has conducted investigations into intelligence breaches and failures, while also offering advice on how intelligence agencies could be improved and consolidated. The board also gets reports on possible civil liberties violations, such as excesses and errors in FBI foreign-intelligence wiretaps.
President George W. Bush named former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft to head the panel in 2001. Scowcroft, an opponent of the Iraq War, departed in 2004, and lesser known individuals cycled through the chairmanship thereafter.
The committee, known until 2008 as the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, or PFIAB, meets in secret and generally keeps its advice under wraps. However, its reports are sometimes made public. In 1999, the panel issued a report which condemned security breaches at Energy Department laboratories, while casting a skeptical eye on claims that those weaknesses helped the Chinese steal U.S. nuclear weapons designs.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28832.html
