Negroponte Approved as Intelligence Chief

WASHINGTON — John Negroponte won easy approval by the Senate on Thursday to become the first national intelligence director, a job created last year to better coordinate U.S. spy agencies following the Sept. 11 attacks and other intelligence blunders.

Within 45 minutes of his approval, Negroponte was sworn in at the White House by Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.

President Bush witnessed the ceremony.

Negroponte, 65, has said this was his “most challenging assignment” in more than 40 years of government service.

The Senate voted 98-2 to give the former Iraq ambassador the job.

He now oversees the intelligence agencies that were criticized in report after report for failures leading up to the attacks of Sept. 11, and for prewar intelligence on Iraq. In a statement, Bush said Negroponte “will lead a unified intelligence community as it reforms and adapts to the new challenges” of this century.

Last summer, the independent Sept. 11 commission urged Congress to create a single, powerful director to oversee all 15 intelligence agencies.

Congress approved the new post in December.

Yet intelligence veterans and some lawmakers question whether the job comes with enough power to lead the highly competitive agencies that handle spy recruiting, satellite imagery and other duties.

“He’s going to carry heavy burdens,” said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“I am convinced, however, that he has the character, that he has the expertise, and he has the leadership skills to successfully meet these challenges and shoulder these responsibilities.”