Spy chief's new head of public affairs

WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- A veteran newspaper reporter has joined the staff of Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell as his latest chief spokesman and media strategist.

In a statement Thursday, McConnell said Richard Willing started March 31 as the director of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the fourth person in three years to hold the post, which has been without a permanent incumbent for nearly a year.

Until January this year Willing covered criminal justice issues and intelligence and national security for USA Today, a post he held since 1997.

McConnell said his reporting background should serve him well in his new post.

"He understands how our actions are perceived," said McConnell. "He appreciates the vital importance of the work we do, and will work tirelessly to help us better communicate our work to the American people."

Willing is the fourth director of public affairs since April 2005, when the ODNI was established -- the keystone of the intelligence reform process initiated after the failure to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Robert Callahan, recently nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, was the first incumbent, following his boss, the first DNI John Negroponte, from Iraq, where the latter had been U.S. ambassador. Callahan, a longtime aide from Negroponte's Latin America days, was his spokesman.

Callahan left government service in August 2005 and was replaced by Judi Emmel, who had been director of corporate communications at the National Security Agency, where she served under Principal Deputy DNI Gen. Michael Hayden.

Emmel was the longest serving of the four and remained in the post until she returned to the NSA a year later. From August 2006 former White House Office of Management and Budget spokesman Chad Kolton held the post, which has been filled by a junior official "acting up" since his departure in May last year.

Previously in his career, Willing covered the auto industry and organized labor for the Washington bureau of The Detroit News. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post Style section, Washingtonian magazine and the Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies. On radio, he has reported for BBC Ulster and Radio Canada.

Willing holds honors degrees from Yale and Ohio State universities.

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Shaun Waterman, UPI Homeland and National Security Editor