WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush's nominee for the new post of national intelligence director, John Negroponte, is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate Thursday, becoming the central authority for all US espionage operations.
Shortly after 1600 GMT, the Senate began what was expected to be four hours of debate on the nomination, which was expected to be approved overwhelmingly.
Opening the debate, Pat Roberts, Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the White House could scarcely have chosen better than Negroponte, a career diplomat with some four decades of government experience under his belt.
"The president has made an excellent choice," Roberts said.
"His career has been dedicated to intelligence ... He has a great deal of experience to offer. He is well suited for this position."
The creation of a national intelligence directer's post was one of the main recommendations made by the commission that investigated the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Negroponte told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing earlier this month that preventing a future attack was his top priority -- an area in which Roberts said much work remained to be done.
"Over three years have passed since the September 11 attacks, and the elements of the community have made not the progress that we want in sharing intelligence data," said Roberts.
Negroponte also vowed at his Senate confirmation hearing that he would work to quash squabbles between agencies and to dismantle the "intelligence fiefdoms" that have hampered the flow of information in the past.
Roberts said he would be held to that promise.
"We expect him to break down those barriers to information access ... We expect him to improve the human intelligence capabilities that we need, and ultimately, we expect him to provide leadership and responsibility," Roberts told his Senate colleagues on Thursday.
Born in London to a Greek-American family and raised in New York, Negroponte, who is fluent in five languages, is seen as a sophisticated and subtle behind-the-scenes operator who holds the broad world view needed to perform the challenging job.
The veteran troubleshooter has served as US ambassador to Mexico, Honduras and the Philippines and was the US representative to the United Nations who made the case for the Iraq war.
From June 2004 until last month, Negroponte was the US ambassador to Iraq where he served in the leadup to the landmark January 30 elections.
But Negroponte has been dogged for years by accusations from human rights groups that he downplayed killings and disappearances by government-linked death squads during his 1981-1985 tenure as ambassador to Honduras.
During his watch, Honduras became the largest US mission in Latin America outside of Mexico City and a staging ground for US military and intelligence operations in the region.
04/21/2005 16:56 GMT