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.

In addition, appointments do not have to be conducted through a competitive process and HQEs may work on a full-time, part-time, or intermittent basis. With a McCain win in mind, ICD 623 was obviously aimed at bringing into the intelligence community neocons who did not want to give up their fat salaries at non-profit think tanks and academic institutions.

Nevertheless, ICD 623 can now be used by the Obama administration to help right the wrongs committed during eight years of the Bush administration. An influx of those who dared challenge the neocons, either from within the intelligence community or outside of it, would help to restore America’s battered image among allied intelligence agencies and U.S. intelligence contacts around the world, particularly those in the Arab and Muslim worlds, who were scared off by the neocon takeover of U.S. intelligence.

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Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

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