President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

The President's Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) is an advisory body to the Executive Office of the President of the United States. According to its self-description, it "provides advice to the President concerning the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection, of analysis and estimates, of counterintelligence, and of other intelligence activities."PIAB Official Website.

The PIAB, through its Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), also advises the President on the legality of foreign intelligence activities.

History

In January 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the agency, originally known as the President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities (PBCFIA). The first board under chair James Killian were:

* Richard Conolly
* Jimmy Doolittle
* Benjamin Fairless
* John Hull
* Joseph P. Kennedy
* Robert Lovett
* Edward Ryerson

In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy renamed it to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB).
The board exists at the pleasure of the President, who can change its size and portfolio so in 1977 President Jimmy Carter abolished the PFIAB, but President Ronald Reagan re-established it later.

On February 29, 2008, President George W. Bush renamed the agency to its present form.

Most of the board's work is secret, but one very public investigation involved the loss of U.S. nuclear secrets to China from the Los Alamos National Laboratory during the 1990s.Bill Getrz, "Covert board called crucial to presidents", ''The Washington Times'', June 16, 2008, Page A1

Intelligence Oversight Board

President Gerald Ford created the IOB following a 1975–76 investigation by the US Congress into domestic spying, assassination operations, and other abuses by intelligence agencies. His executive order doing so went into effect on March 1, 1976.Charlie Savage
"President weakens espionage oversight: Board created by Ford loses most of its power"
''Boston Globe'', March 14, 2008 In 1993, the IOB became a committee of the PFIAB, unde
Executive Order #12863
of President Bill Clinton.

One of the IOB's functions is to examine violations of the laws and directives governing clandestine surveillance. The IOB received quarterly and annual reports from most US intelligence activities. Thirteen cases involving FBI actions between 2002 and 2004 were referred to the IOB for its review.

In an executive order issued on February 29, 2008, President George W. Bush terminated the IOB's authority to oversee the general counsel and inspector general of each U.S. intelligence agency, and erased the requirement that each inspector general file a report with the IOB every three months. The order also removed the IOB's authority to refer a matter to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation, and directed the IOB to notify the president of a problem only if other officials are not already "adequately" addressing that problem.

In August 2013 it was reported that the membership of the IOB had been reduced from 14 to 4 under President Barack Obama, possibly starting in early May at the beginning of the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden. The membership had not been increased as of July 2014.

Membership

During the administration of President George W. Bush, the PIAB had 16 members selected from among distinguished citizens outside the government who were qualified "on the basis of achievement, experience, independence, and integrity." The members were not paid.

PIAB membership is generally considered public information; for example, the Clinton Administration posted the names of the members on a PFIAB web page,David Corn
"Who's On PFIAB?--A New Bush Secret"
''The Nation'' (blog), August 14, 2002, retrieved December 31, 2012 and the Trump Administration issued a press release announcing the nominations of new members.

PFIAB Membership under George W. Bush

In August 2002, Randy Deitering, the executive director of PFIAB, confirmed the membership list released by the White House press office in October 2001:
*Brent Scowcroft, the chair
* Pete Wilson, former governor of California
* Cresencio S. Arcos, Jr., AT&T executive and former US ambassador
*Jim Barksdale, former head of the internet company Netscape
* Robert Addison Day, chairman of the TWC Group, a money management firm
* Stephen Friedman, past chairman of Goldman Sachs
* Alfred Lerner, chief executive of MBNA
*Ray Lee Hunt, scion of the Texas oil fortune
*Rita Hauser, lawyer
*David E. Jeremiah, retired admiral
* Arnold Kanter, national security official in the George H. W. Bush administration and a founding member of the Scowcroft Group
* James C. Langdon, Jr., a power-lawyer in Texas
* Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, chair of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University
* John Harrison Streicker, real estate magnate
* Philip Zelikow, National Security Council staffer during the George H.W. Bush administration and later a counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
In 2003, there were indications of spying on members of the board by a foreign intelligence asset.

PIAB Membership under Barack Obama

The entire PIAB membership that served under the administration of George W. Bush resigned as part of an agreed-upon move in the presidential transition of Barack Obama.

President Obama appointed Chuck Hagel, former United States Senator from Nebraska, and current University of Oklahoma President David Boren as PIAB co-chairs.

The following other members were appointed to the board under President Obama:

*Roel Campos
*Richard Danzig appointed on December 1, 2010
* Lee H. Hamilton
*Rita Hauser
* Paul G. Kaminski
* Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of the Henry L. Stimson Center
*Les Lyles
*Daniel Meltzer appointed on December 1, 2010
* Jami Miscik appointed December 23, 2009
* Mona Sutphen appointed on September 6, 2011
* Philip Zelikow appointed on September 6, 2011
*Tom Wheeler appointed on April 27, 2011

In May 2013, the White House dismissed 10 members of the board. The four remaining members of the PIAB were:
*Richard Danzig
*Daniel Meltzer
*Jami Miscik
*Mona Sutphen

In August 2014, President Obama nominated six new members:
* James S. Crown
*Scott Davis
*Jamie Dos Santos
*Julius Genachowski
* Shirley Ann Jackson
* Neal Wolin

PIAB Membership under Donald Trump

President Donald Trump nominated the following persons to the PIAB:
*Steve Feinberg, chair
*Samantha Ravich, vice chair
* Safra Catz
* Saxby Chambliss
* Jim Donovan
* Kevin Hulbert
*Jeremy Katz
*David Robertson

In February 2019, President Trump named three additional members:
*Charles E. Allen
*Daniel Hoffman
*John K. Hurley

In May 2019, President Trump named Ray Washburne as an additional member.

PIAB Membership under Joe Biden

President Joe Biden named the below persons to the PIAB.

* Sandy Winnefeld
* Gilman Louie
* Janet Napolitano
* Richard Verma

In June 2022, he named Evan Bayh to the PIAB.

In October 2022, he named Anne M. Finucane to the PIAB.

PIAB Chairs

PIAB chairpersons have been:PFIAB Chairpersons
The White House website, retrieved March 14, 2008

IOB Chairs

These are chairs of the Advisory Board's committee of Intelligence Oversight Board

Board executive directors

*1956–1959: John Cassidy
*1959–1961, 1961–1970: Patrick Coyne
*1970–1973: Gerard Burke
*1973–1977: Wheaton Byers
*1977: Lionel Olmer
*1977–1981: ''Board abolished''
*1981–1983: Norman Wood
*1983–1984: Fred Demech
*1984–1988: Gary Schmitt
*1988–1989: Fred Demech
*1989–1991: Nina Stewart
*1991–1992: ''Vacant''
*1992–1995: Eugene Yeates
*1995–2003: Randy Deitering
*2003–2005: Joan Dempsey
*2005–2017: Stefanie Osburn

Board members

* David Abshire: 1981–1983
* Stephen Ailes: 1976–1977 (IOB)
* Lew Allen: 1990–1999 (IOB)
* Brooke Anderson: 2015–present
* George Anderson: 1969–1970; 1976–1977
* Martin Anderson: 1982–1985
* Cresencio Arcos: 1999–2003
* Leslie Arends: 1976–1977
*Anne Legendre Armstrong: 1981–1990, Chairman
*Zoë Baird: 1993–2001
*Howard Baker: 1985–1987; 1988–1990
* William Baker: 1959–1961; 1961–1977; 1981–1990
*Jim Barksdale: 2001–2009
* Robert Barrow: 1984–1985
* Richard Bloch: 1996–1998
*Alfred Bloomingdale

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases