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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate confirmed retired Admiral Dennis Blair to be the country's top intelligence official on Wednesday.
As director of national intelligence, Blair will oversee all 16 U.S. spy agencies, including the CIA. He will also be responsible for delivering the president's daily intelligence briefing.
During his confirmation hearing last week, Blair, declined to call waterboarding torture. His cautious response reflected a public debate over whether to prosecute CIA employees who used the simulated drowning technique.
Torture is banned by U.S. and international laws.
The Senate also confirmed Christina Romer, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The three-member council makes recommendations to the president on policy options.
Romer is a macroeconomist and specialist on the effects of fiscal policy and on monetary shocks. She has written extensively on the Great Depression in the 1930s.
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