New No. 3

By John Liang / March 11, 2009 at 5:00 AM

The office of the Director of National Intelligence today announced the appointment of the organization's No. 3 official.

Lt. Gen. John "Jeff" Kimmons is the new director of the intelligence staff, according to a DNI press release. He arrived Feb. 28 from the Pentagon, where he served as the Army's deputy chief of staff, G-2 -- the service's top intelligence officer.

"Jeff Kimmons has a wealth of experience and a keen appreciation of the need for insightful intelligence to support the national security decision-making process. I look to him to help strengthen the ODNI and our Intelligence Community as we face new challenges," Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said in the statement.

Kimmons will be responsible for "oversee((ing)) the staff to ensure the effective integration and coordination of policy and procedures across the Intelligence Community," the statement reads.

Kimmons has served as commanding general of the Army's Intelligence and Security Command at Ft. Belvoir, VA, and commander of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion at Ft. Bragg, NC. He has also done stints at U.S. Central Command, the National Military Command Center, Joint Special Operations Command as well as serving as an intelligence officer with Delta Force.

Kimmons succeeds Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, who was recently appointed as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the DNI statement.

DNI also announced the appointments of Wendy Morigi as the organization's new public affairs director and Arthur House as communications director. Morigi was communications director for Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and House was the managing director for public affairs at Connecticut-based Webster Bank.

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