The director of national intelligence has appointed an analytic ombudsman so intelligence analysts who feel under political pressure to tilt their work, or who feel their reports are being misrepresented, have someone to turn to outside their own agency.

Nancy Bernkopf Tucker took a leave of absence from her position as a history professor at Georgetown University to become the assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analytic integrity and standards in January, according to a statement from her office.

She told United Press International in a recent interview that she was appointed to the additional post of analytic ombudsman May 1. Both posts were created by the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, and neither appointment has been previously reported.

But Paul Pillar, a former senior intelligence official responsible for overseeing the production of intelligence analyses about Iraq, told UPI that in most agencies the ombudsmen were part-time retired analysts, able to “lend an ear to individual officers,” but basically toothless.

He said that politicization did not necessarily imply pressure on individual analysts, but could be the result of “patterns of behavior.” He instanced as an example what he said was “the differential treatment in the process of (inter-agency) coordination and review” that various intelligence products got, depending on whether they were “in conformity with the administration’s desire to bolster its case for war.”

Those documents that supported the White House case for war were fast-tracked through the approval process, those that did not, were not, he said.

Lawrence Korb, a former senior defense official…told UPI that the key performance predictor would be Tucker’s ability to get her boss’ ear.

“The real issue is, is Negroponte going to pay attention to her?” he said. “Will she be able to walk into his office and say ‘look, you’re being sold a bill of goods here,’ and get something done about it?”

Korb has the key. I knew an ombudsman for a Fortune Ten military-industrial corporation — who had to go directly to the CEO on one occasion — because the focus of the unethical behavior in question was a member of the board of directors. Fortunately, the backup was there.

I’m not confident about Negroponte offering that level of integrity.