On Friday, President Bush nominated Vice Admiral Mike McConnell to replace John Negroponte as the director of national intelligence. Mike McConnell said he would work to increase the coordination between the nation’s 16 different spy agencies.

Vice Admiral Mike McConnell: I plan to continue the strong emphasis on integration of the community to better serve all of our customers. That will mean better sharing of information, increased focus on customer needs and service, improved security processes, and deeper penetration of our targets to provide the needed information for tactical, operational and strategic decision making.”

McConnell is a former director of the National Security Agency and the current director of defense programs at Booz Allen — one of the nation’s biggest defense and intelligence contractors. Salon.com is reporting that under McConnell’s watch, Booz Allen has been deeply involved in some of the most controversial counterterrorism programs run by the Bush administration, including the infamous Total Information Awareness data-mining scheme. Salon reports that Booz Allen is likely participating in the NSA’s warrantless surveillance of the telephone calls and emails of American citizens.