New Missions, New Challenges: 2005–2008
Thomas Fingar’s chairmanship began with two overriding challenges: to implement the intelligence reforms of 2004–5 and to repair the damage to the National Intelligence Council’s credibility in the aftermath of the Iraqi WMD debacle. The reforms had created the position of director of national intelligence (DNI), with a large mandate but no staff, and much of the day-to-day analytic support that formerly would have been done by CIA now fell to the NIC—a major shift from its traditional role in strategic analysis. Ironically, in seeking to restore the NIC’s credibility, Fingar found himself in another controversy—this time over an NIE on Iranian WMD that seemed to downplay the threat. Fingar offers a detailed rebuttal of those charges and examines the larger question of the often-fraught relationship between the intelligence community and the Congress. Finally, the NIC produced both a path-breaking analysis of the security implications of climate change, and Global Trends 2025, which took the series to a higher level.