Transition Watch: Blair tapped for top Obama intell role

Retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair has been nominated to be the next director of national intelligence, highlighting President-elect Barack Obama’s preference for a strong military manager to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Blair is expected to have a say in Obama’s selection of the next director of the CIA and, if confirmed, will oversee an intelligence arena that could expand to include a domestic intelligence agency and a White House office to handle cybersecurity.

But Blair, a former commander of U.S. Pacific forces, will have to contend with a Defense Department report that said he violated conflict-of-interest standards as president of the Institute of Defense Analyses, according to the Journal.