{"id":219,"date":"2007-01-04T11:45:20","date_gmt":"2007-01-04T16:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=219"},"modified":"2007-02-27T22:02:20","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:02:20","slug":"negropontes-new-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=219","title":{"rendered":"Negroponte&#8217;s New Job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>Intelligence Czar John Negropont<\/title>Intelligence Czar John Negroponte will leave his post to become Deputy  Secretary of State, the State Department&#8217;s second-ranking official.<\/p>\n<p>It is too early to know why Negroponte is accepting a demotion, but  speculation runs along some familiar lines.<\/p>\n<p>The <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/2007\/01\/04\/news\/intel.php\">New  York Times<\/a><\/em> suggests that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has  essentially recruited Negroponte for the job:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[A]dministration officials say Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had  \tbeen trying to recruit him to bring more Iraq expertise to her office&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Negroponte&#8217;s move to the State Department has been rumored for months.  \tRice was pushing to bring Negroponte in as her deputy&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The move may be a sign that the administration is looking for more  \tsweeping changes to its Iraq strategy&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It might be more accurate to say Rice is trying to add more &#8220;heft&#8221; to her  office <em>in the hope of winning a factional battle<\/em> for the direction of  Iraq strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Negroponte is going to State in order to help Rice <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=215\">battle Cheney<\/a>, and  perhaps prepare to take over the reins should Rice depart Foggy Bottom.<\/p>\n<p>Here is one account of the factional battle lines from a December 5, 2006 <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.insightmag.com\/Media\/MediaManager\/Baker_1.htm\">Insight  Magazine<\/a><\/em> article:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a  \tMiddle East peace effort without Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed  \tMadrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As Baker sees this, the conference would provide a unique opportunity  \tfor the United States to strike a deal without Jewish pressure,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an official  \tsaid. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This has become the most hottest proposal examined by the foreign  \tpolicy people over the last month.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Officials said Mr. Baker&#8217;s proposal, reflected in the recommendations of the  \tIraq Study Group, has been <strong>supported by Secretary of State Condoleezza  \tRice, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and National Intelligence  \tDirector John Negroponte<\/strong>. The most controversial element in the  \tproposal, they said, was Mr. Baker&#8217;s recommendation for the United States to  \twoo Iran and Syria.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The &#8220;heft&#8221; in all this is to take on Cheney.\u00c2\u00a0 Seymour Hersh reported in  his late November 2006 <em>New Yorker<\/em> essay, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/fact\/content\/articles\/061127fa_fact\">The  Next Act<\/a>&#8220;:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A retired four-star general who worked closely with the first Bush  \tAdministration told me that&#8230; [for] Scowcroft, Baker, the elder Bush&#8230;  \t[the issue] is how to preserve the Republican agenda. The Old Guard wants to  \tisolate Cheney and give their girl, Condoleezza Rice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe Secretary of  \tState\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153a chance to perform.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The combination of Scowcroft, Baker, and the  \tsenior Bush working together is, the general added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tough enough to take on  \tCheney. One guy can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It seems like Negroponte&#8217;s new job is to help take on Cheney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intelligence Czar John NegropontIntelligence Czar John Negroponte will leave his post to become Deputy Secretary of State, the State Department&#8217;s second-ranking official. It is too early to know why Negroponte is accepting a demotion, but speculation runs along some familiar lines. The New York Times suggests that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has essentially recruited [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}