The intel director's office's statement didn't mention the CIA at all. Instead, it pointed out that "The President-elect will now be offered the same briefing given to President Bush each morning," and that the "Office of the Director of National Intelligence will continue to lead the effort."

Richard Willing, spokesman for McConnell's office, said the statement was one of a series of routine messages that takes note of news stories about its activities. But one current and one former intelligence official (who both asked for anonymity when discussing spy-agency politics) said the statement by McConnell's staff sparked discussion around the intelligence community that the intel czar's office wanted to reassert its lead role in preparing the Obama briefings.

Two other officials, who also asked for anonymity, pointed out that it was only logical for the CIA to highlight its central role in briefing Obama, since the agency's analysts write as much as 90 percent of the content that makes it into the top-secret President's Daily Brief, or PDB.

"It's important that CIA employees know what their agency is doing to support a smooth presidential transition," saiys Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman. "That includes decisive contributions to the DNI-led presidential-briefing process. CIA's role in the intelligence community is clear, well-defined and a source of real pride. There's no reason at all for anyone to point fingers or cower in a far corner of the room—if, in fact, that's going on anywhere."

The CIA analysts usually base their PDB contributions on what is known in the spy business as "all source" intelligence. They put together a mosaic of information from such sources as the CIA's own National Clandestine Service (responsible for collecting information from secret agents, known as HUMINT), the National Security Agency (responsible for monitoring electronic messages and "signals" like phone calls and e-mails, known as SIGINT) and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for processing images taken by spy satellites and airplanes (known as IMINT).

If an agency other than the CIA has a major breakthrough that it wants to urgently call to the attention of the president (or president-elect), the agency can either write its own paper on the subject for inclusion in PDB or ask the intel czar's office to invite a representative of that office to participate in a daily briefing. It is not known whether other agencies have yet asked to present their material directly to Obama.