Benjamin Friedman, the policy director at Defense Priorities, a think tank skeptical of overseas interventions, said there was value in having a high-ranking official manage the intelligence community. But the problem with the office is that it has responsibility without power, he said.
To be effective, the office should have great authority to move funds around and alter budgets, powers jealously guarded by the C.I.A. and the Pentagon.
“It is basically impossible to do the job as it was envisioned,” he said. “They just don’t have the power to direct the agencies they supposedly coordinate.”
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