*EPF202 08/24/2004
9/11 Attacks Prompting Intelligence Overhaul
(Legislation pending in several Senate committees) (780)

By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Responding to recommendations contained in the report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission), Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts unveiled comprehensive legislation to revamp the 15-agency U.S. intelligence community.

Roberts said August 24 that the proposed legislation would divide the CIA into three separate intelligence agencies, and rearrange agencies currently assigned to the Defense Department. To date, Roberts' legislation is the most sweeping of the bills now under consideration by several committees and the White House.

The plan is contained in a 139-page draft bill that will be introduced in the Senate when senators return from their August recess on September 7. For legislation to be considered by Congress it must be formally introduced and placed on the legislative calendar.

"Our bill proposes a path to implement the important ideas recommended by the 9/11 Commission," Roberts said in a prepared statement. "Our work was guided by the 9/11 Commission's work, as well as the Senate Intelligence Committee's decades of work on intelligence reform, including our inquiry into the U.S. intelligence community's prewar intelligence assessments on Iraq."

However, Roberts' bill, which is supported by eight members of his committee, drew criticism from a number of sources.

President Bush said he would examine the senator's plan, though he had not seen it yet. "There's a lot of ideas moving around," Bush said August 23 at his Texas ranch. "We've got a lot of smart people looking at the best way to fashion intelligence, so that the president and his cabinet secretaries have got the ability to make good judgment calls on behalf of the American people."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, however, told a Senate Armed Services Committee that movement to revamp the intelligence community should be done with great caution.

"It's important that we move with all deliberate speed. We need to remember that we are considering these important matters, however, while we are waging a war," Rumsfeld said. "If we move unwisely and get it wrong, the penalty would be great."

Currently, the U.S. intelligence community is composed of the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, FBI, Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of the Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, and the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy intelligence branches.

The Director of Central Intelligence, who is also the head of the CIA, presides over the intelligence community, but has no control over the members' individual budgets or personnel. Currently, the U.S. intelligence budget is estimated to be $40 billion, though the budget is classified.

Even though Roberts' committee has proposed a draft bill to revamp the U.S. intelligence apparatus, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee has formal jurisdiction over legislation that reorganizes government agencies. And Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins said her committee is expected to have legislation for consideration by the Senate on October 1, the beginning of fiscal year 2005.

In addition, the White House has signaled it intends to issue a series of executive orders and presidential directives that can be done without legislation to implement 9/11 Commission recommendations.

Roberts' proposed legislation would recreate the intelligence community as the National Intelligence Service. Among changes his bill proposes:

-- Create a national intelligence director, as recommended by the 9/11 Commission, who would have direct authority over all U.S. intelligence. It would not be a cabinet-level position, although the director would report directly to the president.

-- Assign the national intelligence director oversight of four assistant directors for intelligence collection; analysis and production; research, development and acquisition; and military support.

-- Break the CIA into three separate agencies: a National Clandestine Service to direct traditional espionage operations; an Office of National Assessments to be responsible for intelligence analysis; and an Office of Technical Support to handle research and development projects. The position of CIA director would be abolished.

-- Place the National Security Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office under the assistant director for intelligence collection, and remove them from the control of the Defense Department.

-- Transfer the Defense Intelligence Agency's human intelligence elements to the control of the assistant director for intelligence collection.

-- Place the FBI's counterintelligence and counterterrorism divisions under the assistant director for intelligence collection.

-- Create a director of military intelligence, a four-star military officer, to run the Defense Department's tactical intelligence elements and oversee armed forces conducting intelligence-related work.

-- Create a National Counterterrorism Center, which was proposed by the 9/11 Commission.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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