GOP plan would split
CIA
The Arizona Republic/USA Today/Washington
Post Dan Eggen
Aug. 23, 2004 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - The Republican chairman of the Senate
intelligence committee unveiled a proposal Sunday to remove most
of the nation's major intelligence-gathering operations from the
CIA and Pentagon and place them directly under the control of a
new national intelligence director.
The plan, announced by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and endorsed
by seven other committee Republicans, is more severe than the
reorganization proposed last month by the Sept. 11 commission and
would result in the virtual dismantling of the CIA. It also would
severely curb the power and influence of the Defense Department,
which controls the bulk of the federal classified intelligence
budget.
Under the plan, the CIA's three main directorates would be
torn from the agency and turned into separate entities reporting
to separate directors. The Pentagon would lose control of three
of its largest operations as well, including the super-secret
National Security Agency, or NSA, which intercepts electronic
signals worldwide.
The proposal came as a shock to Senate Democrats and the White
House, which had not been told about the plan's details by
Roberts and seven other GOP committee members. Congress is
holding hearings on how to remodel the nation's intelligence
agencies in the wake of shortcomings outlined by the Sept. 11
commission.
Roberts, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, said the
Republicans focused on "the national security threats that face
this country today" in fashioning the proposal.
"We didn't pay attention to turf or agencies or boxes,"
Roberts said. "I'm trying to build a consensus around something
that's very different and very bold."
But the plan ran into immediate obstacles, including a
committee Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, who said on the
same CBS show: "It's a mistake to begin with a partisan bill, no
matter what is in it."
And while the White House indicated it would study the
proposal, an intelligence official Sunday said the plan "makes no
sense" and would cause more problems than it would solve.
"Rather than eliminating stovepipes, this will create more of
them," said the official, requesting anonymity.
"Rather than bringing intelligence disciplines together, it
smashes them apart. . . . This proposal is unworkable and would
hamper rather than enhance the nation's intelligence
operations."
The plan was welcomed by the campaign of Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry, who has endorsed the changes
advocated by the Sept. 11 commission, including creation of a
national intelligence director.
Rand Beers, the campaign's national security adviser, said in
a statement that the Senate GOP proposal "is very similar to the
reforms offered by John Kerry but needs to become bipartisan to
be fully successful." Beers accused President Bush of "dragging
his feet and resisting any real changes."
The proposal adds an unpredictable element to the debate over
how to revise the intelligence community as Congress works toward
voting on legislation before the November elections. The debate,
carried out in about 22 hearings scheduled during Congress's
usual August recess, has centered on the recommendations of the
Sept. 11 commission, which released a final report last month
calling for creation of a national intelligence director who
would control the budgets of the various U.S. intelligence
agencies.
The Bush administration unveiled a proposal that would create
a national intelligence director but not give the individual
direct control over budgets or operations of the agencies. In
congressional testimony last week, both Acting CIA Director John
McLaughlin and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged
caution.
"If we move unwisely and get it wrong, the penalty would be
great," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Roberts' plan, outlined in a paper released Sunday, would
create agencies of the CIA's main directorates: operations, which
collects intelligence and directs covert activities;
intelligence, which analyzes information; and science and
technology.
At the Pentagon, both the NSA and the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency would be removed and put under an
assistant national intelligence director. The human intelligence
program in the Defense Intelligence Agency would also be
removed.
In outlining the proposal, Roberts said, "No one agency, no
matter how distinguished its history, is more important than U.S.
national security." The paper also said: "We are not abolishing
the CIA. We are reordering and renaming its three major
elements."
But the senior intelligence official said that little would be
left at the CIA under the plan. "That's exactly what it would do:
demolish the agency," the official said. "This goes way beyond
anything reasonable."
Roberts's proposal came a day after the Sept. 11 commission
officially closed down, although its members have vowed to
campaign for intelligence revisions.
Hours before its midnight demise, the panel released two
reports containing new details about al-Qaida fund-raising and
about how the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers obtained U.S. visas and
entered the country on numerous occasions.
The FBI knew about suspected al-Qaida fund-raisers before the
attacks but failed to adequately address them, one report said,
adding, "Gaps appear to remain in the intelligence community's
understanding of the issue."
The second report said the hijackers lied on their visa
applications, overstayed U.S. visas or falsified passports. It
found that ringleader Mohamed Atta should have been stopped for
extra scrutiny in July 2001, the last time he re-entered the
United States.
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