(Title has been changed to illustrate the point)

BY PABLO BACHELET | Miami Herald

The director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, Monday appointed a conservative specialist on links between national security and economics to head a kind of one-stop shop for the intelligence community on Cuba and Venezuela.

As ’‘mission manager’‘ for the two countries, Norman A. Bailey will oversee three to five staffers who will pore over information from 16 U.S. government agencies to spot information gaps, help craft intelligence strategies and track the implementation (of those strategies.

The post was announced earlier this year by Negroponte amid rising U.S. concerns over the two countries. Venezuelan President Hugo Ch�vez has been trying to forge an international front opposed to U.S. policies, and is considered a crucial supporter of Cuban leader Fidel Castro by providing subsidies estimated by U.S. officials at $2 billion.

The administration has five other mission managers specializing in Iran, North Korea, counterterrorism, counterproliferation and counterintelligence.

Bailey is well-known in Washington’s community of Latin American specialists as a conservative Cold War expert well-versed on regional affairs and a frequent participant of the seminar and conference circuit.

Most recently he served as senior fellow at the conservative Potomac Foundation and taught courses on economics and conflict at the Institute of World Politics at the Graduate School of National Security and International Affairs.

Otto Reich, a former assistant secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere and White House special envoy for the Western Hemisphere, described Bailey as ``very knowledgeable.’‘

Reich said that as a former senior director of international economic affairs at the White House National Security Council 1981-1983, Bailey played a key part crafting the Reagan administration policies widely credited with bringing down the former Soviet Union and ending the Cold War.

’‘He understands political action, he understands public diplomacy, he understands the psychological aspects of the world we’re in,’‘ Reich said.

Bailey, who speaks five languages, is the author of a 1999 book, The Strategic Plan that Won the Cold War.

He also worked as an economist with Mobil Oil Company and was president of Overseas Equity, Inc., an international financial consulting firm.

He also served in the U.S. army, specializing in strategic intelligence and joint operational planning.

He graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1953 and holds a Masters of International Affairs and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

I think Mr. Bailey should, right now, start looking for a new job. Change is in the air.