National intelligence chief takes Penobscot canoe trip

MILLINOCKET – His presence wasn’t top secret, but John Negroponte nonetheless didn’t make a big splash when he took a canoeing expedition down the Penobscot River last week.

And his calling card was a jacket that he gave his guide.

Or so said Town Councilor Matthew Polstein when he explained Thursday that the new national intelligence director, his family and a flock of Secret Service agents used Polstein’s New England Outdoor Center guide service to ride river rapids last week.

Polstein doesn’t usually talk about his clients, but said that Negroponte gave him the jacket upon one condition – that he display it to the council and the audience as an illustration of his presence in Millinocket and as an endorsement of area tourism offerings.

“He and his party found the area truly remarkable,” Polstein said during the council meeting. “Not a one of them came and said they wouldn’t be willing to return here. I think that bodes well for our community.”

The jacket was given to the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq when he attended the World Council for Infrastructure Development meeting in 1997. The council has met annually for conferences in Hong Kong, Washington, D.C., and Prague, among other places. The jacket commemorates those conferences and is given to all conference attendees, Polstein said.

Negroponte served in the United Nations as U.S. ambassador from 2001-2004. It was his first visit with Polstein’s company and so low-key – though not secret – that company employees weren’t aware of Negroponte until they started down the river on the three-day trip, Polstein said.

His company also hosted a national radio talk-show host during the last two weeks, but he would not say who it was.

An ardent advocate for tourism, Polstein may have been gently rebuking audience members who are pro-industry and who have been critical of Polstein. No one else spoke during Polstein’s brief remarks, which he made from the audience shortly before the council meeting ended.