Director of National Intelligence

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is appointed by the President of the United States of America, subject to approval by the U.S. Senate. The DNI heads the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), headquartered in McLean, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, D.C.). As of 2024, the Office has about 1750 employees.

The organization was created by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to integrate foreign, military and domestic intelligence because of the perception that the various United States Intelligence agencies had not shared information adequately to have prevented the 2001 9-11 Attack, even though enough information likely existed in various pockets here and there to have understood the threat. Critics say compromises during the bill's crafting led to the establishment of a DNI whose powers are too weak adequately to improve the performance of the US Intelligence Community. In particular, the law left the United States Department of Defense in charge of the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. (The limited DNI role in leading the US Intelligence Community is discussed in the United States Intelligence Community|Intelligence Community article.)

Prior to establishment of the DNI, the head of the United States Intelligence Community was the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), who concurrently served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The Director of National Intelligence is a cabinet-level position reporting directly to the President but not automatically a member of the president's cabinet.

Congress specified that the Director and Principal Deputy Director cannot both be active-duty military officers and that one or the other should be a military intelligence officer, usually of four-star rank, or have extensive experience in military intelligence. 50 U.S.C. § 403-3a