WP: Clique and Dagger (Negroponte as new principal of "Spy High")

[DeepModem Mom]

Clique and Dagger
The Jocks and Nerds of Spy High Are Getting a New Principal

By Hanna Rosin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 12, 2005; Page C01


If he is confirmed this month as the first-ever director of national intelligence, John Negroponte will face many daunting challenges: courting foreign intelligence sources, for instance, and streamlining intelligence gathering to help prevent another massive terrorist attack.

But in the spy world these days another question dominates the discussions:

Where will Negroponte's office be?

If the president places him in CIA headquarters, says one former CIA official, that will send the message that he's the boss now. If instead he's detailed to an alternative site in Tysons Corner, that would send the message either that he's irrelevant, or that the CIA's irrelevant, depending on whom you talk to....

***

The intelligence world is a "community" only in the same sense as any high school. From the outside they are united by a common rival. But from the inside they are fractured into finely subdivided cliques that wouldn't be caught in the same room together unless the principal (in this case, Negroponte) called them into his office.

Broadly speaking, Spy High is ruled by two warring factions: the Techno-Geeks and the 007s. Each side thinks the future of intelligence rests with them and the other side is for losers....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45059-2005Apr11.html