according to aol.com, Obama has also chosen retired Adm. Dennis Blair, former head of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Command, as director of national intelligence.
(is this a created position?)
according to the aol article, “Blair also is known in Navy circles for once trying to water-ski behind the destroyer he skippered, the USS Cochrane”
http://news.aol.com/article/obama-fills-two-key-intelligence-posts/293944
best regards, blu
Blair reportedly disobeyed orders from civilians in the Clinton Administration during the 1999 East Timorese crisis, during his tenure as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command. Amid growing international concern over violence against the independence movement in Indonesian-occupied East Timor, Blair was reportedly ordered to meet with General Wiranto, the commander of the Indonesian military, and to tell him to shut down the pro-Indonesia militia. Blair reportedly failed to deliver this message during his meeting with Wiranto, and instead gave Wiranto an offer of military assistance and a personal invitation to be Blair's guest in Hawaii.[5] Months later, after killings of independence supporters had grown, Blair was sent back to Indonesia and, following civilian orders, cut off all American ties to the Indonesian military.[6]
His membership on the board of directors of EDO Corporation, a subcontractor for the F-22 Raptor fighter program, and ownership of its stock was raised as a potential conflict of interest after the IDA issued a study that endorsed a three-year contract for the program. Blair told the Washington Post, "My review was not affected at all by my association with EDO Corp., and the report was a good one." He originally chose not to recuse himself because he claimed his link to EDO was not of sufficient "scale" to require it, but subsequently resigned from the EDO board to avoid any misperceptions.
However on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 the Washington Post reported that the US Department of Defense Inspector General's investigation into the affair found Blair had certainly violated IDA's Conflict of Interest rules but did not influence the result of IDA's study. Blair observed, "with all due respect to the Inspector General I find it hard to understand how I could be criticized for violating conflict of interest standards when I didn't have any influence on the study." [7]