Political Quotes

“I rise to support the nomination of Ambassador Daniel Bennett Smith to be the Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. I am not aware of any opposition to this nominee and so look forward to a strong vote of confirmation by my colleagues. I am also pleased that the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, known as INR, will continue to have strong leadership by a respected senior member of the foreign service. The INR Bureau is a small, but effective entity within the U.S. intelligence community. In fact, it only has approximately 200 analysts, but it has a very strong reputation for independent and unbiased analysis. Its intelligence professionals include those from the foreign service and the civil service, including many who have decades of experience in the topics they cover. These analysts are prized for the intelligence value they provide to senior State Department officials, to include the Secretary and his team, ambassadors, and the men and women who work the country desks. INR also brings the State Department's knowledge and viewpoint to discussions and debates within the intelligence community, helping to ensure that intelligence decisions are informed by diplomatic requirements and information gained by our embassies around the world. In the past several years, INR has perhaps become best known for its dissents from some of the main points in the flawed intelligence reports that led to the war in Iraq.…”