John Russack

John Russack
Program Manager, Information Sharing Environment
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Previous job: Director of the Office of Intelligence, Energy Department
Reports to: Director of national intelligence

John Russack has pulled duty at many levels of the intelligence bureaucracy and in more than one agency. He'll likely call on that experience in perhaps the most daunting job facing any new intelligence manager-ensuring that all government agencies, at the federal, state and local levels, as well as the private sector, share information about terrorists. In a nutshell, Russack is the man who makes sure the government "connects the dots."

As the program manager for the Information Sharing Environment, a mechanism established by the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, Russack will serve for two years, after which he'll issue a progress report and either continue his work or be replaced. (He also can be removed at any time before that.)

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, Russack said, "The mandate for the program manager extends across the federal government and then up and down from federal government to state, local, tribal and the private sector. So the environment is not just federal; it is all encompassing."

At the same hearing, Lee Hamilton, the former co-chairman of the 9/11 commission, emphasized the importance of Russack's job. "The place where it all comes together is in Mr. Russack's position. . . . He's the fellow that has to see that we get all this information shared. And if you don't . . . you are not going to have the most effective means of fighting terrorism."

Before taking his new job, Russack was the intelligence director for the Energy Department. Prior to that, he held several positions at the CIA, including deputy chief of external operations and cover division for counterintelligence; deputy assistant director of central intelligence for collection; military deputy director of the Nonproliferation Center; and executive assistant to the deputy director of central intelligence. According to a former CIA official who knows Russack, he's "impulsive and somewhat a bull in the china shop, but a good guy to have on your side."

In his July testimony, Russack spoke candidly about the state of information sharing today. "We are sharing information better than we ever have. However, the present environment at best is flawed. . . . Most of the impediments that we have today . . . have to do with roles, missions, responsibilities that sometimes overlap; occasionally they conflict. . . . I think that we can make dramatic improvements in information sharing. I will also say that most of the low-hanging fruit has been plucked; what is left to be done is really hard."