US Intelligence Chief Dennis Blair Resigns After Brief But Bumpy Tenure

(May 20) -- Plagued by accusations of intelligence failures and seemingly out of touch with the White House, Adm. Dennis Blair, the nation's top intelligence officer, announced his resignation.

"It is with deep regret that I informed the president today that I will step down as director of national intelligence effective Friday, May 28," Blair said in a statement Thursday night.

Dennis Blair delivers an opening statement on Capitol Hill in Washington,D.C. in 2009.

Susan Walsh, AP

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair announced Thursday that he is retiring effective May 28.

Blair, a retired four-star Navy admiral, faced a series of high-profile U.S. intelligence blunders in his year-and-a-half tenure, including the purported mishandling of the cases of Umar Abdulmutallab, the alleged Christmas Day bomber, and Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the recent Times Square bombing attempt.

Perhaps most famously, Blair conceded in congressional testimony in February that "he was not consulted" on Abdulmutallab's arrest, and he was later forced to backtrack on testimony about the FBI's role in the suspect's interrogation.

According to ABC News, President Barack Obama was unhappy with Blair's performance and had asked the intelligence chief to resign. Obama was displeased by the quality of Blair's intelligence briefings, ABC quoted one anonymous official as saying.

"In short, officials didn't think the briefings were relevant to what the president was focused on that day or time period. They weren't crisp or well presented," ABC reported.

The real question, though, is whether the problem was really with Blair, the third person to occupy the intelligence director's chair, or the position itself, which was created in the wake of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. As the overseer of 17 federal agencies of the U.S. intelligence community -- including the CIA, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security -- the national intelligence director has had to fight a protracted turf war, particularly with the CIA.

The administration has not yet named a replacement for Blair.