UNTIMELY DEPARTURE -- The U.S. intelligence community is upset at John Negroponte's sudden departure from his post as the director of national intelligence after less than two years. According to one insider, Negroponte has left unfinished the important structural reform he began shortly following his appointment as overall head of the country's 15 intelligence services two years ago. President Bush shifted Negroponte, a veteran diplomat, from national security to fill the second ranking position at the State Department when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first choice, Robert Kimmitt, the deputy secretary of the Treasury, didn't want to transfer to Foggy Bottom, and to avoid giving the post to Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, who did. "Zal" is considered too flamboyant for the detail-oriented role of deputy secretary of state, so he becomes U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Now it will be up to Negroponte's successor, retired Adm. J. Michael McConnell to pick up where his predecessor left off and tackle one of the intelligence community's biggest problems, interagency cooperation.
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