National Intelligence Council

A highly classified National Intelligence Estimate assembled by some of the government's most senior analysts this summer provides a pessimistic assessment about the future security and stability of Iraq. The National Intelligence Council looked at the political, economic and security situation and determined that, at best, stability would be tenuous, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said late Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - Majorities of people in most countries will achieve middle-class economic status by 2030, but the effects of climate change, an aging global population and anti-government movements in authoritarian nations such as China could cause upheaval in economic and political systems. The predictions come from a forward-looking study by the National Intelligence Council, which every four years analyzes key trends and projects their implications 20 years into the future. The United States is likely to remain "first among equals" among world powers because of the legacy of its leadership role and military power, according to the report.

Richard Lehman, a CIA official credited with creating the president's daily intelligence briefing and who became chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which oversees government intelligence analysis, died Saturday at a hospice in Concord, N.H., after a stroke. He was 83. Lehman worked at the CIA from 1949 to 1982. He received a CIA Trailblazer Award for creating the President's Intelligence Checklist for President Kennedy in 1961.

The White House this month issued a classified order to resolve mounting frictions between the nation's intelligence director and the CIA over issues including how the agency conducts covert operations, U.S. officials said. The intervention reflects simmering tension between the two most powerful players in the U.S. intelligence community: Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair and CIA Director Leon E. Panetta. The memo maintains the CIA's status as the nation's lead spy service on covert missions, rejecting an attempt by Blair to assert more control.

President Bush will no longer get a separate daily intelligence report on terrorist threats, ending a practice that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials who outlined changes affecting analysts at the nation's spy agencies Tuesday. Instead, the most important elements of the so-called President's Terror Threat Report will be incorporated into the daily briefing Bush gets from Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte, the officials said.

Communal tensions flaring among indigenous groups from Mexico to the Amazon. Dozens of Chinese nuclear warheads aimed at the United States. Russia's power in serious decline, its population diminished by 16 million. A cold peace in the Mideast, but transcontinental terrorists attempting devastating attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Welcome to the year 2015, as characterized in chilling detail by a sweeping new U.S. intelligence report to be released today. As President-elect George W.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence asked me to testify at the confirmation hearings for Robert M. Gates, who had been nominated to be director of Central Intelligence. I was asked because I had worked in the CIA's office of Soviet analysis back when Gates was the agency's deputy director for intelligence and chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

President Bush's nominee to be the next director of national intelligence is a spy agency veteran who is a master of the intricacies of the trade, from the technology of intercepting electronic signals to the financial sleight of hand of hidden, or "black," budgets. The main question surrounding J. Michael McConnell's nomination to be the next intelligence chief is whether he is forceful enough to keep an already illdefined job from sliding into irrelevancy.

During his confirmation hearings for director of Central Intelligence, Robert M. Gates acknowledged the need to make significant changes in the organization and operations of the intelligence community. Once on the job, he commissioned several task forces to provide the guidelines for the post-Cold War era. But before they could issue their reports, the chairmen of the Senate and House intelligence committees jumped in and separately introduced legislation to accomplish the reorganization.

The White House this month issued a classified order to resolve mounting frictions between the nation's intelligence director and the CIA over issues including how the agency conducts covert operations, U.S. officials said. The intervention reflects simmering tension between the two most powerful players in the U.S. intelligence community: Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair and CIA Director Leon E. Panetta. The memo maintains the CIA's status as the nation's lead spy service on covert missions, rejecting an attempt by Blair to assert more control.

When John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote about "The Israel Lobby" in 2006, many supporters of Israel were outraged. How, they wanted to know, could anyone say that the United States offered "unwavering support" to Israel? Worse yet, how did these two misguided professors dare suggest that there was a cabal of die-hard Zionists in the media, in Congress, in the Pentagon and in neocon think tanks working to ensure that U.S. policy did not deviate from the pro-Israel party line?

Richard Lehman, a CIA official credited with creating the president's daily intelligence briefing and who became chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which oversees government intelligence analysis, died Saturday at a hospice in Concord, N.H., after a stroke. He was 83. Lehman worked at the CIA from 1949 to 1982. He received a CIA Trailblazer Award for creating the President's Intelligence Checklist for President Kennedy in 1961.

President Bush's nominee to be the next director of national intelligence is a spy agency veteran who is a master of the intricacies of the trade, from the technology of intercepting electronic signals to the financial sleight of hand of hidden, or "black," budgets. The main question surrounding J. Michael McConnell's nomination to be the next intelligence chief is whether he is forceful enough to keep an already illdefined job from sliding into irrelevancy.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence asked me to testify at the confirmation hearings for Robert M. Gates, who had been nominated to be director of Central Intelligence. I was asked because I had worked in the CIA's office of Soviet analysis back when Gates was the agency's deputy director for intelligence and chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

President Bush will no longer get a separate daily intelligence report on terrorist threats, ending a practice that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials who outlined changes affecting analysts at the nation's spy agencies Tuesday. Instead, the most important elements of the so-called President's Terror Threat Report will be incorporated into the daily briefing Bush gets from Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte, the officials said.

A highly classified National Intelligence Estimate assembled by some of the government's most senior analysts this summer provides a pessimistic assessment about the future security and stability of Iraq. The National Intelligence Council looked at the political, economic and security situation and determined that, at best, stability would be tenuous, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said late Wednesday.

When John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote about "The Israel Lobby" in 2006, many supporters of Israel were outraged. How, they wanted to know, could anyone say that the United States offered "unwavering support" to Israel? Worse yet, how did these two misguided professors dare suggest that there was a cabal of die-hard Zionists in the media, in Congress, in the Pentagon and in neocon think tanks working to ensure that U.S. policy did not deviate from the pro-Israel party line?

WASHINGTON - Majorities of people in most countries will achieve middle-class economic status by 2030, but the effects of climate change, an aging global population and anti-government movements in authoritarian nations such as China could cause upheaval in economic and political systems. The predictions come from a forward-looking study by the National Intelligence Council, which every four years analyzes key trends and projects their implications 20 years into the future. The United States is likely to remain "first among equals" among world powers because of the legacy of its leadership role and military power, according to the report.

Communal tensions flaring among indigenous groups from Mexico to the Amazon. Dozens of Chinese nuclear warheads aimed at the United States. Russia's power in serious decline, its population diminished by 16 million. A cold peace in the Mideast, but transcontinental terrorists attempting devastating attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Welcome to the year 2015, as characterized in chilling detail by a sweeping new U.S. intelligence report to be released today. As President-elect George W.

During his confirmation hearings for director of Central Intelligence, Robert M. Gates acknowledged the need to make significant changes in the organization and operations of the intelligence community. Once on the job, he commissioned several task forces to provide the guidelines for the post-Cold War era. But before they could issue their reports, the chairmen of the Senate and House intelligence committees jumped in and separately introduced legislation to accomplish the reorganization.