Obama to name John Brennan to lead CIA
(CNN) - President Obama will nominate John Brennan to be the next director of the CIA, according to a senior administration official.
The announcement is expected Monday afternoon at the same time the President nominates Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense, the official said.
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Official: Changes to Benghazi talking points made by intel community
Washington (CNN) - The intelligence community - not the White House, State Department or Justice Department - was responsible for the substantive changes made to the talking points distributed for government officials who spoke publicly about the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, the spokesman for the director of national intelligence said Monday.
The unclassified talking points on Libya, developed several days after the the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, were not substantively changed by any agency outside of the intelligence community, according to the spokesman, Shawn Turner.
FULL STORYCNN Fact Check: Is al Qaeda's core decimated or is group growing?
(CNN) - During Monday night's foreign-policy focused presidential debate, President Barack Obama made the case that al Qaeda in Pakistan is decimated while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney argued they are on the rise in other countries:
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Cyber security bill promotes sharing of threat data
Washington (CNN) - Legislation introduced in the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday is designed to knock down the barriers that interfere with the federal government and the private sector sharing critical information about cybersecurity threats.
The bill would enable the intelligence community to share classified information with the private sector while at the same time addressing the concerns private companies have with providing information about attacks on their systems to the government.
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Senator: Remarks about Libya 'should be the final straw' for Clapper
Washington (CNN) - Testimony by the director of national intelligence has prompted a leading Senate Republican to call for his resignation even as other senators expressed support.
In a statement, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, criticized James Clapper's statement, given during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, that Moammar Gadhafi's regime would "prevail" over the rebels in Libya.
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Chambliss named ranking Republican on Senate Intelligence Committee
Washington (CNN) - An eight year veteran of the Senate Intelligence Committee has been named the new ranking Republican on the panel.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, was appointed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday.
"It is a priority of mine to ask the tough questions to ensure that we continue disrupting plots from those who seek to do us harm, and that we are giving our intelligence community the tools and resources it needs to keep America safe," Chambliss said in a prepared statement.
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New spy agency chief held up by congressional infighting
Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama's nominee to be the nation's chief spy has been left waiting in the wings while Congress tries to complete work on a new intelligence bill that is being held up by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein said she won't hold confirmation hearings for James Clapper, currently the Defense Department's chief intelligence officer, to become the next director of national intelligence until her top priority is completed - Congressional passage and the president's signature on the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Bill.
At issue is a provision in the bill that changes the ground rules for how the president notifies Congress about top secret intelligence activities.
Cyber-security legislation seeks emergency powers
Washington (CNN) - A new Congressional cyber security proposal would give the president emergency powers to protect critical private networks under attack, but the bill's sponsors insisted it does not allow the government to take control of any private cyber-network.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut, who helped create the legislation, said the president could order a patch or tell a cyber network to stop receiving incoming data from a particular country when critical infrastructure in the private sector such as the electrical grid or financial grid is threatened or attacked. A company that complies with the order would be given immunity from any liability for any consequences of the action.
Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, emphasized the proposal does not allow for any new surveillance authority.
"This isn't a case of the federal government increasing its surveillance of private sector computers nor would it permit the government to take over private networks," said Collins. "It enables the government in concert with the private sector to better protect our nation's cyber assets."
The bipartisan bill announced by Lieberman, Collins and Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Delaware, creates a cyber security center at the Department of Homeland Security and would make the cyber security coordinator at the White House a permanent position, confirmed by the Senate. The position is currently appointed by the president.
Who wants to be U.S. intelligence chief?
Washington (CNN) - Now that Dennis Blair has packed his bags after 16 months as the nation's chief intelligence officer, finding a new director to lead the 16 agencies of the intelligence community is turning out to be a tough sell.
CIA Director Leon Panetta is a top choice of the Obama administration for the new director of national intelligence, said administration officials, but with three directors coming and going within five years, some, including Panetta, appear wary of the position.
Panetta would likely face little opposition on Capitol Hill. Key congressional leaders who would have to sign off on a new DNI have been singing his praises. Panetta had been a controversial choice to lead the CIA because of his lack of intelligence related experience. However, intelligence committee leaders on both sides of the aisle have singled Panetta out for his leadership at the CIA and working closely with Congress.
But Panetta is "very happy" at the CIA, finds the job "rewarding and challenging" and has told the White House he has no interest in becoming the director of national intelligence, said a U.S. intelligence official, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to talk about the issue.
Another prominent name on the list is retired Lt. Gen. James Clapper, the current undersecretary for intelligence at the Defense Department. But his prospects appear pretty dim on Capitol Hill.
Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of National Security Strategy
Washington (CNN) - The Obama administration unveils its National Security Strategy on Thursday and it will be the first time a president explicitly recognizes the threat posed to the country by radicalized individuals at home, the president's chief counterterrorism adviser said.
The security strategy acts as a blueprint for how a White House administration intends to protect Americans. In the past, it has focused mostly on international threats.
But a spate of terror-related plots in the United States recently prompted the Obama administration to include homegrown terrorism in the document, National Security Adviser John Brennan said Wednesday.
Homegrown terrorism represents a new phase of the terrorist threat, he said.
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