Statement for the Record by 

Dr. Donald M. Kerr 

Director, 

National Reconnaissance Office, 

Nominee for the Position of 

Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, 

before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence 

August 1, 2007 
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Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I am pleased to 

appear before you to discuss my credentials as the nominee for 

Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence—the PDDNI. 

Indeed, it is an honor to be asked, and if confirmed it will be 

a privilege to serve. In discussions with the Director of 

National Intelligence (DNI)—McConnell, we agree that the role of 

the PDDNI is analogous to that of the chief operating officer of 

a public company. While the DNI is chief executive officer for 

the Intelligence Community (IC)—and principal intelligence 

adviser to the President and other senior leaders, the PDDNI 

should be focused on coordinating and integrating the day-to-day 

efforts of the 16 elements that comprise the IC. Before 

addressing my vision for the IC, allow me to highlight my 

background that uniquely qualifies me to serve as the PDDNI. 

Over a 40-year career, I have held a number of senior-level 

public and private sector positions, and have obtained a number 

of critical skills and lessons learned. In considering the 

challenges facing the IC, as well as the responsibilities of the 

PDDNI, I would ask you to consider five key areas of strength 

and experience that are applicable to this position: an ability 

to identify and deal effectively with troubled components; a 

strong technical background; coalition-building skills; the 

ability to drive organizational cultural change; and a stronglyheld belief that an effective planning system coupled with 

strong financial management can achieve superior results. While 

I learned this latter lesson in private industry, I have applied 

this model in all my subsequent government assignments. I have 

also learned that the tools and techniques, used to integrate 

acquired companies, can be effectively applied in the government 

environment. 
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As this Committee knows from first-hand experience, I have 

been both personally and professionally committed to national 

security throughout my career. I have had direct responsibility 

for intelligence and defense activities in four different 

government agencies: the Department of Energy, the Federal 

Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, and 

the National Reconnaissance Office, and have supported 

intelligence programs in private industry, and as a staff member 

and later as director of a national laboratory. I have had 

opportunities to work on a wide variety of intelligence issues, 

including nuclear proliferation, arms control monitoring, 

nuclear test detection, and the development of future air and 

space reconnaissance systems. I am particularly proud of the 

programs I have led to bring technical solutions to intelligence 

and law enforcement challenges. My commitment to countering 

terrorism began with activities in 1978-79 as a member of the 

NSC Executive Committee on Terrorism. This commitment was 

substantially reinforced by direct responsibilities 

investigating the East African embassy bombings in 1998 and the 

attack on the USS Cole in 2000, and refocused by 9/11 and the 

efforts of the past five years. 

I would like to share my personal vision for the IC, as 

well as several goals that I believe are critical for more 

effectively focusing the Community in the challenging, post-9/11 

environment. I would also like to share my philosophy about the 

role of intelligence in our national security construct. A 

popularly held contention is that the role of intelligence is to 

protect the nation from all harm. While this is a succinct way 

to state the ultimate goal, I think the situation is more 

complicated than that. One academic described the role of 

intelligence as extracting certainty from uncertainty and 
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facilitating coherent decision-making in an incoherent 

environment. These are not activities that lend themselves to 

guarantees or perfect scores as we would like, but they reflect 

the reality in which we operate. If I were to state what I 

believe is the essence of national intelligence, I would say 

that its primary goal is to reduce the risk our Nation faces 

today and tomorrow. The National Intelligence Estimate, “The 

Terrorist Threat to the US Homeland,” makes clear that we will 

face a persistent and evolving terrorist threat over the next 

several years—a threat that will challenge our current defensive 

efforts and tools we use to detect and disrupt plots. 

My “philosophy” is not meant to minimize the critical role 

each and every one of our intelligence professionals—nor the 

Intelligence Community, as a whole—plays in warning about 

current and future threats. The challenges we face not only 

demand our ongoing dedication and commitment to the national 

intelligence mission, but more importantly new and innovative 

approaches to the work we do; the operations we plan and carry 

out; the collection assets we design, build and operate; the 

analyses we produce; and the strategic partnerships we make 

across traditional and non-traditional boundaries. 

Every era has its seemingly impossible challenges. The 

future is fraught with unpredictable elements and trends. The 

elements that could significantly transform the geopolitical 

landscape include nuclear proliferation, catastrophic terrorism 

and even a pandemic disease. The intelligence enterprise must 

think ahead to ensure that the capabilities needed to deal with 

these challenging and oft times explosive issues are available 

to the analyst, policymaker, operations officer, and warfighter 

when they are needed. This is all the more difficult, because 

the threat is no longer predictable and confined to specific 
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geographic areas. It is mobile, dispersed, dynamic, and 

distributed. Intelligence problems are also developing at a 

much more rapid pace than ever before. We must posture 

ourselves to adapt and respond quickly, in an integrated 

fashion, to evolving problems. To that end, I believe there are 

a number of goals that capture what we need to excel as a 

Community in order to grow our comparative advantage and reduce 

the myriad risks to our nation: 

• Seek global situational awareness 

• Deliver critical information to support timely decisionmaking 

• Anticipate strategic threats and 

• Operate as a unified, integrated—but distributed--

enterprise 

• Adopt technologies and concepts of operation that cause 

adversaries to react in ways that give the US advantage 

• Maintain appropriate investment levels for future 

capabilities 

In order to set the Intelligence Community on a path toward 

achieving these goals, there are three elements that need to be 

in place to support the Community. First, the IC has a solemn 

duty to gather critical intelligence, but to do so in a way that 

complies with the constitutional and other legal requirements 

that protect the freedoms and liberties of the American people. 

There must be proper training and oversight mechanisms for the 

IC to ensure that there are clear legal rules for IC personnel 

operating in this critical area. Given the non-public nature of 

much of the IC’s work, the DNI must also ensure that Congress is 

kept appropriately informed of IC activities to enable Congress 

to perform its oversight responsibilities. 
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Second, we have a responsibility to provide timely 

information to Congress to support effective oversight. 

Congressional oversight plays a key role in ensuring that the 

Intelligence Community is performing as envisioned. To exercise 

such oversight responsibilities, the Committees must understand 

the intelligence process, its organizations, policies, funding, 

and activities. The DNI and other members of the Community must 

communicate on a regular and continuing basis to keep the 

oversight committees fully and appropriately informed. 

Third, the Intelligence Community must deliver intelligence 

information to decision-makers without bias or prejudice. 

Intelligence analysis must be held to the highest standards of 

integrity and objectivity. It must also be rigorous, timely and 

independent from political consideration. To position ourselves 

to meet the analytic challenges of today and tomorrow, we must 

go beyond simply doing our current jobs better. We must 

transform the way our analysts do their work. We must more 

effectively leverage new and emerging technologies and reach out 

to expertise wherever it resides. If confirmed, I will strongly 

support the Intelligence Community’s efforts to measure and 

track progress in implementing these analytic standards, 

including the use of alternative analysis. 

Effectively inspiring the expertise and experience of our 

talented intelligence professionals requires strong and focused 

leadership. If confirmed, I would bring particular emphasis to 

a number of areas. I would look to focus on effective financial 

management, including reducing the indirect cost burden wherever 

possible. This effort speaks to Director McConnell’s goal of 

modernizing business practices and developing verifiable 

metrics. My experience at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 
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and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is that 

accountability for funds is effective. Although there are 

always improvements that can be made, the real challenge is 

developing the right balance between tighter controls and 

mission effectiveness and making financial reporting more useful 

to those who manage our programs. I believe that continuous 

improvement in financial management should be an Intelligence 

Community priority. 

While at the NRO, I have seen first-hand the added-value in 

establishing more effective financial management processes, 

procedures and management controls to put us on a path toward an 

unqualified audit opinion. The DNI recently developed a unified 

financial management plan for the IC as part of his 100 day plan 

to modernize business processes. If confirmed, I will assist 

the DNI in moving the Intelligence Community forward from 

today’s uneven, but improving, financial management environment 

to one characterized by common business processes and integrated 

systems that adhere to recognized best business practices across 

industry and government. I strongly support Director 

McConnell’s emphasis in this area. 

Accountability is critically important in ensuring that 

officials are responsible for their actions. Within the IC, 

accountability ultimately rests with the DNI and the PDDNI. 

However, in a government based upon checks-and-balances and 

collective decision-making, determining individual 

accountability is often very difficult. It has been my 

experience that most government employees, regardless of whether 

they reside in the executive, legislative or judicial branches, 

are simply trying to do what is right for the taxpayer. 

However, there are occasionally egregious exceptions, and when 

they occur, swift and decisive action must be taken. Each and 
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every member of the Intelligence Community is responsible for 

using the resources entrusted to them judiciously. 

Additionally, all government employees are expected to ensure 

their performance is consistent with the highest standards of 

professionalism and integrity. One of the first items on my 

agenda, if confirmed, would be to ensure that each member of the 

IC is fully aware of what is expected and required. I will take 

decisive action wherever and whenever necessary. 

There has been much discussion recently about the role of 

the contractor in the Intelligence Community. There are 

compelling reasons we use contractors to perform critical 

functions within the IC. In the NRO construct, our industry 

partners design and build our satellite systems, as well as 

provide 24/7 operational and maintenance support. We also rely 

on contractors to provide the basic services that we generally 

take for granted in the course of our day. These are services 

that are more economically outsourced and include everything 

from network maintenance to janitorial support. There are also 

certain exigencies that justify an intelligence agency’s use of 

contractors. For example, if an agency has a short term project 

or mission that exceeds the capacity of its current staff, it is 

sometimes more appropriate for that agency to use contractors to 

meet that temporary need than to hire and train permanent 

federal civilian employees to perform the work. We also employ 

contractors to provide specialized, niche capabilities that we 

may not be able to perform with government personnel. In each 

of these areas, contractors must be used judiciously, with full 

oversight from the government. If confirmed, I will continue to 

examine the appropriate use of contractors within the 

Intelligence Community. The key to successful partnership with 

the contractor community is to view the management of the 

relationship as an inherently government function. 
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My general philosophy in evaluating the appropriate use of 

contractor support is: no contractor shall perform work that a 

government person should be doing; under no circumstance should 

a contractor make policy or investment decisions on behalf of 

the government; and the use of contractors must be more cost 

effective than using government resources. For example, to 

establish a cadre of government network administrators would be 

more expensive and possibly less effective than to contract-out 

with a telecommunications company to provide the service. It is 

appropriate to use contractors when they offer unique, distinct, 

or “surge” capabilities that may not be available within the 

government. Most importantly, all contractors and employees of 

the federal government must comply with the Constitution and 

laws, as well as with the governing regulations of the 

organization they support. If confirmed, I will continue to 

examine and enforce the appropriate use of contractors within 

the IC. 

I believe that the importance of a highly trained workforce 

cannot be overstated, both for the NRO and the IC. I have taken 

a number of steps in this area while at the NRO. First, I 

signed a Statement of Intent with the Air Force Chief of Staff, 

which makes clear that the Air Force and NRO will work together 

to improve the career development of our shared workforce. The 

NRO has also teamed with Air Force Space Command to train space 

professionals across the government at the new National Security 

Space Institute in Colorado Springs. I am working on similar 

initiatives with the CIA. Currently, the NRO’s Acquisition 

Center of Excellence is helping NRO acquisition professionals 

complete education requirements leading to advanced degrees in 

Public Management and Engineering Administration. We have also 

partnered with Virginia Tech to provide the Engineering 
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Administration degree program on site at the NRO. In addition, 

the NRO is also establishing a virtual University that will 

provide an integrated, career-focused program that combines 

specialized training provided by the NRO directorate- and 

office-based schools with an NRO-wide curriculum focused on 

shared context, values, informational needs, and leadership. 

These initiatives are in addition to an already robust Systems 

Engineering Professional Development and Certification program 

that last year certified 151 systems engineers. 

If confirmed, I look forward to supporting Director 

McConnell in his effort to more closely integrate the 

Intelligence Community. During my tenure, the NRO has been 

working toward an integrated mix of overhead and ground-based 

capabilities tailored to the geographically dispersed and 

dynamic nature of current and projected intelligence problems, 

as well as the diverse needs of our users. Integration is not 

only a watchword for technical collection and operations, but it 

is imperative that we integrate intelligence collection and 

analysis more effectively—they are symbiotic disciplines. 

We can only achieve the goals and objectives by becoming 

unified in our commitment to the Intelligence Community’s 

contribution to the strongest defense possible for our Nation 

and our people. Thank you for the opportunity to share with the 

Committee my background and – if confirmed – my vision for my 

new role and responsibility. I look forward to answer any 

questions you may have.