Obama To Get Top Secret CIA Briefing
President-elect will be briefed on al Qaeda, Iraq, and Iran.
November 5, 2008— -- President-elect Barack Obama will learn the full "burdens of office" tomorrow when he receives his first top secret briefing from the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.
McConnell will be accompanied by the CIA's top intelligence analyst, Michael Morel, the Director for Intelligence, and two senior CIA briefers, intelligence officials tell ABCNews.com.
Morel will take over the briefing responsibility for the President-elect through the transition after tomorrow's initial session, officials say.
During the campaign, the CIA director, Gen. Michael Hayden, provided a national security briefing to both Obama and Sen. John McCain.
Vice-president elect Joseph Biden will receive a separate briefing from the CIA, officials say.
Top Obama advisers are eager to begin a strategic shift in counter-terrorism policy with a much greater focus and commitment of resources to going after al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani tribal region.
Officials say the President-elect will learn the CIA still has no specific information on the whereabouts of bin Laden but has a much better set of leads on the location of bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahari.