Director of National Intelligence: Dennis Blair

Time magazine suspects that Dennis Blair's best qualification for his new job was having nothing to do with George Bush's secret prisons, extraordinary renditions and torture policies. The recently retired four-star navy commander is fluent in Russian and an expert in China who has previously worked for the CIA under Bill Clinton. Pundits suspect his expertise in managing vast organisations might help him to find a way of streamlining America's 16 spying agencies. Blair, 61, is renowned as a highly intelligent workaholic but gained considerable notoriety during his time in the navy for once attempting to water-ski behind a destroyer while serving in Japan.

FIRST POSTED JANUARY 7, 2009