On October 16, 2008, the Bush administration's Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Mike McConnell, signed Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) Number 623. The new directive, possibly with an eye on a surprise election win by Senator John McCain, permits the DNI to "select, appoint, compensate, and detail highly qualified experts (HQEs) within Intelligence Community (IC) elements."
Had McCain won the election, a torrent of neoconservatives would have likely descended upon the Intelligence Community from all the think tanks and right-wing news organizations in the greater Washington, DC, area.
But McCain did not win the election but ICD 623 remains in force. From the department of unintended consequences Obama's DNI could reinstate into the intelligence community all those individuals purged from the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI counter-intelligence division, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other agencies because they dared to challenge the neocon party line emanating from Vice President Dick Cheney's office and the rival intelligence apparatus set up in the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
John O. Brennan, fluent Arabic speaker, former CIA station chief in Riyadh, and graduate of the American University in Cairo, in other words, a so-called "Arabist" much hated by the neocons, is rumored to be a top choice for DNI or CIA director. Brennan would, under ICD 623, be able to bring in "from the cold" such targeted, sacked, or compromised intelligence employees as the CIA's Valerie Plame Wilson, NSA's Russ Tice, or the FBI's Sibel Edmonds and Colleen Rowley. To sweeten the deal, the DNI may set the pay scale for HQEs "up to or equal to the salary of the Vice President of the United States." The Vice President's salary is set at $198,600 a year.
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