WASHINGTON - Retired Vice Adm. Mike McConnell, a veteran of more than 25 years in the intelligence field, will be named by President Bush to succeed John Negroponte as national intelligence director, a senior administration official said Thursday.
Negroponte will move to the State Department to become the No. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The nominations of McConnell and Negroponte are expected to be announced by Bush on Friday.
The administration sought to dispel any suggestion that Negroponte's shift was a demotion. Bush personally reached out to Negroponte, an experienced diplomat, to take over the long-vacant job as deputy secretary of state, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because Bush has not announced the nomination.
Bush also talked personally with McConnell about taking the job as director of national intelligence, overseeing all 16 U.S. spy agencies.
Under Donald Rumsfeld's reign at the Defense Department, there were rivalries and friction between the Pentagon and the intelligence community. Robert Gates, who took over last month as secretary of defense, supports McConnell's nomination to the top intelligence post, the official said.
The personnel shifts in the intelligence community come as Bush is planning to announce changes in strategy for the war in Iraq. That speech - once expected before Christmas - now is not likely before the middle of next week, at the earliest.
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