National intelligence chief Blair resigns

WASHINGTON - National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair is resigning under pressure from the White House, ending a tumultuous 16-month tenure marked by intelligence failures and spy agency turf wars.

Blair, a retired Navy admiral, is the third director of national intelligence, a position created in response to public outrage over the failure to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

His departure underscores the disorganization inside the Obama administration's intelligence apparatus, rocked by a spate of high-profile terror attacks that revealed new national security lapses.

And it comes two days after a stark Senate report criticized Blair's office and other intelligence agencies for new failings that, despite a top-to-bottom overhaul of the U.S. intelligence apparatus after 9/11, allowed a would-be bomber to board a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

In a message yesterday to his work force, Blair said his last day would be May 28.

The resignation became inevitable following a meeting between President Barack Obama and Blair yesterday afternoon, according to two senior congressional officials. During the meeting, the officials said, it became clear that Blair had "lost the confidence of the president." Obama made no reference to Blair's rocky tenure in a brief statement last night that did not acknowledge his impending resignation.

Two other government officials said several candidates already had been interviewed for the job, which is to oversee the nation's 16 intelligence agencies.

Blair's departure was first reported by ABC News.

His term in office was marred by turf battles with CIA Director Leon Panetta and Blair's own controversial public comments on the abortive Christmas Day jetliner bombing.

The two congressional officials said Blair had been on a losing streak since he squared off with Panetta last May over Blair's effort to choose a personal representative at U.S. embassies to be his eyes and ears abroad, instead of relying on CIA station chiefs.

In the failed Christmas Day attack, the Senate Intelligence Committee found that the National Counterterrorism Center was in a position to connect intelligence that could have prevented it. Blair oversaw the center.