Dennis Cutler Blair (born February 4, 1947) is the former United States Director of National Intelligence and a retired United States Navy admiral who was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region., Aspen Security Forum, 2013 Blair was a career officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the White House during the presidencies of both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Blair retired from the Navy in 2002 as an Admiral., Secure Energy, 2013 In 2009, Blair was selected as President Barack Obama’s first Director of National Intelligence, but after a series of bureaucratic battles, he resigned on May 20, 2010.Bob Woodward, Obama's Wars (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), p. 371. Obama offered Blair the opportunity to devise a face-saving cover story, but Blair refused: "You want me to lie?"
He currently serves as a member of the Energy Security Leadership Council of Securing America's Future Energy, and is on the boards of the Atlantic Council, Freedom House, the National Bureau of Asian Research, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He also serves as co-chair of the annual Pacific Energy Summit.
He also serves as a senior advisor to Ron Wahid, Chairman of Arcanum, a global strategic intelligence company and subsidiary of Magellan Investment Holdings.
Early years Blair was born in Kittery, Maine, the son of Abbie Dora (née Ansel) and Captain Carvel Hall Blair. He is a sixth-generation naval officer and the great-great-great-grandson of Confederate Chief Engineer William Price Williamson of North Carolina, who is credited with first suggesting that the hull of the be used to build the Confederate ironclad .Virginia. He was also related to William Price Williamson, a recipient of the Navy Cross who died during World War One.Davis, William C., Duel Between The First Ironclads. He also counts portrait painter Charles Willson Peale and U.S. Attorney General William Wirt among his ancestors.
Blair attended St. Andrew's School (1964) and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1968. The class of 1968 at the academy also included retired Admiral Michael Mullen, the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Admiral Jay L. Johnson, former Senator James H. Webb, and retired General Michael Hagee, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North.http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/bolden-cf.html , NASA, September, 2009
Naval career
Following his graduation from the Naval Academy, he was assigned to the guided missile destroyer . He then received a Rhodes Scholarship, reading Russian studies at Oxford University, attending during the same time future president Bill Clinton studied there. He served as a White House Fellow from 1975 to 1976 with Wesley Clark and Marshall Carter.
Blair spent over 34 years in the United States Navy. He served on guided missile destroyers in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and commanded the Kitty Hawk Battle Group between 1994 and 1995. Blair commanded the USS Cochrane from 1984 to 1986 and the Pearl Harbor Naval Station from 1988 to 1989. Blair was known as a thoughtful commander, but is also remembered for moments of levity during his leadership. He is believed to be the first naval officer to ever attempt water-skiing behind his modern destroyer as skipper.Time, Time Swampland, January 12, 2009
His last job in the military was as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command between 1999 and 2002, the highest-ranking officer over most of the U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region. During his tenure, he developed a series of programs and joint exercises with militaries in the region and broadened the relationships between the U.S. military and partner nations.http://www.fas.org/asmp/resources/govern/107_hircBlair.htm , FAS.org, February 27, 2002http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/5/1/2/9/p251297_index.html , All Academic Research, 2006http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/0101qus_seasia.pdf , Sheldon W Simon, Arizona State University
Blair was in command at USPACOM when a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) J-8II interceptor fighter jet collided in mid-air, resulting in the death of a Chinese crewmember and the emergency landing of the EP-3. Following the landing, the 24 U.S. crewmen aboard were detained in China for 10 days. The so-called Hainan Island incident threatened to escalate already tense relations between the United States and China. Blair played in a key role in managing the crisis.https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/RL30946.pdf , FAS.org, October 10, 2001
Previously, he was Director of the Joint Staff in the Office of the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and served in budget and policy positions on several major Navy staffs and the National Security Council staff. He was also the first Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support. He retired from the Navy in 2002.
Reports of disobeying orders According to journalist Alan Nairn, during his tenure as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, Blair disobeyed orders from civilians in the Clinton administration during the 1999 East Timorese crisis. Amid growing international concern over violence against the independence movement in Indonesian-occupied East Timor, Blair was ordered to meet with General Wiranto, the commander of the Indonesian military, and to tell him to shut down the pro-Indonesia militia. According to Nairn, two days after the Liquiçá Church Massacre, Blair failed to deliver this message, instead presenting Wiranto with an offer of military assistance and a personal invitation to be Blair's guest in Hawaii.Alan Nairn. "US Complicity in Timor". The Nation, September 27, 1999 Consequently, Wiranto's "forces increased the Timor killings".Alan Nairn. "Breaking News: US Intel Nominee Lied About '99 Massacre. US, Church Documents Show Adm. Dennis Blair Knew of Church Killings Before Crucial Meeting. " News and Comment. January 22, 2009 During his confirmation hearing as Director of National Intelligence, Blair denied the accusations: "In our conversations with leaders of Indonesia, both military and civilian, we decried and said that the torture and killing that was being conducted by paramilitary groups and some military groups in East Timor had to stop"; "those who say that I was somehow carrying out my own policy or saying things that were not in accordance with American policy are just flat wrong".Sen. Dianne Feinstein Holds A Hearing On The Nomination Of Dennis Blair To Be Director Of National Intelligence. January 22, 2009. Excerpts from Transcript of Confirmation Hearing. Blair was unanimously approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee,, Intelligence.senate.gov, January 22, 2009http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=1fa8b02c-0b50-a3b7-3027-dafb9b069277 , Feinstein.senate.gov, January 28, 2009 his tenure lasting just fifteen months, at which point he was fired, reportedly for disobeying orders from President Obama.
Conflict of interest 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 Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) issued a study that endorsed a three-year contract for the program. In a 2006 report, the Project on Government Oversight publicized the results of this study and exposed Blair's conflict of interest. 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 he subsequently resigned from the EDO board to avoid any misperceptions.
On December 20, 2006, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General's investigation into the affair found Blair had 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".
Decorations and notability
His decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters (4 awards), Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (4 awards), Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal with one star (2 awards), as well as numerous other campaign and service awards. He has been decorated by the governments of Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Thailand and Taiwan."Vice Admiral Dennis C. Blair Appointed to Reserve Forces Policy Board" (press release), US Department of Defense
Surface Warfare Officer badge United States Pacific Command badge Defense Distinguished Service Medal with three bronze oak leaf clusters Defense Superior Service Medal Legion of Merit with three gold award stars Meritorious Service Medal Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal with one star National Defense Service Medal with two bronze service stars Order of the Rising Sun, Grand Cordon (Japan)
Retirement After retiring from the Navy, Blair held the John M. Shalikashvili Chair in National Security Studies at The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), and the General of the Army Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership at Dickinson College and the U.S. Army War College. He served as president of the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) from 2003 to 2007, a U.S. government think tank in the Washington, D.C. area focused on national security. He was also deputy executive director of the Project on National Security Reform.
Blair is now serving as the chairman of the board at Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, a U.S.-Japan relations think tank in Washington, DC.https://www.spfusa.org / He also serves as co-chair of the Pacific Energy Summit, an annual forum that brings together key energy and environmental stakeholders from across the Asia-Pacific to discuss policies and practices needed to promote energy and environmental security.
Blair is the co-head of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property along with former governor of Utah and Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman.
Director of National Intelligence
Nomination Dennis C. Blair became the third Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on January 29, 2009, after being nominated by newly inaugurated President Barack Obama.ODNI, Biography , January 30, 2009
During his confirmation, Director Blair indicated he did not support a domestic intelligence agency separate from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also promised to end special interrogation regimes, believing the Intelligence Community must conduct analysis on opportunities as well as threats.New York Times, Statement of Dennis C. Blair before The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate, January 22, 2009 (see , 00:30-01:08)Washington Post, DNI Nominee Blair Talks of Opportunities for Statecraft, January 26, 2009ODNI, DNI Workforce Message , January 30, 2009ODNI, Media Roundtable with Mr. Dennis Blair , pg. 5, 21, March 26, 2009
Appointment of Intelligence Community representatives In May 2009, Blair attempted to assert the DNI's role as the head of the Intelligence Community with a memo claiming authority to appoint CIA chiefs of station abroad. This was vehemently opposed by CIA Director Leon Panetta, who issued a memo of his own.David Ignatius, Intelligence Turf Has to be Ended , June 14, 2009