President's Intelligence Advisory Board

Formerly the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), now the President's Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), with its component Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), is an independent, nonpartisan element within the Executive Office of the President, which has been in existence for over 50 years.

Obama Administration

The current Board is co-chaired by former Senators Chuck Hagel and David Boren. President Barack Obama has not filled the other vacancies, and it was suggested he may abolish the Board.

In December 2009, however, the President named seven members, but seven seats remain open. The new members are:

• Roel Campos, a lawyer and former Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner;
• Lee Hamilton, the former congressman and vice chairman of the 9-11 Commission;
• Rita Hauser, an international lawyer and president of the Hauser Foundation for democracy promotion and conflict resolution;
• Paul Kaminski, a longtime military scientist and former undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology in the Clinton administration;
• Ellen Laipson, a former Clinton White House national security council specialist on the Near East and South Asia who is president of the Henry L. Stimson Center;
• Lester Lyles, a retired United States Air Force general who is vice chairman of the Defense Science Board
• Jami Miscik, who was the Central Intelligence Agency's first female deputy director for intelligence (CIA), from 2002 to 2005.

One of the issues it is reported to be examining is the role of the Director of National Intelligence, from which Dennis Blair recently resigned, widely assumed to be frustrated with the lack of authority of the role vis-a-vis the Secretary of Defense and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Washington Post, which reported the President was unhappy with Blair, said that the Board said

... according to sources, was that changing the law would be too difficult and that Obama should find a candidate who could get along not only with the defense secretary, who controls a good portion of the overall intelligence budget, but also with the chiefs of key Pentagon-based intelligence agencies. "That person also would need to have a rapport with the directors of the CIA and FBI.

Supporting organizations

Its subordinate Intelligence Oversight Board oversees the Intelligence Community’s compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws, Executive Orders, and Presidential Directives. It complements and supplements, rather than duplicates the oversight roles of the Director of National Intelligence, Department and Agency Inspectors General and General Counsels, and the Congressional Oversight Committees.

The Board has a small professional staff headed by an Executive Director appointed by the President.