文章基本信息

标题：New spy chief's clout___in doubt
作者：Andrea Stone
期刊名称：Spokesman Review, The (Spokane)
出版年度：2004
卷号：Aug 4, 2004
出版社：Cowles Publishing Co.

New spy chief's clout___in doubt

Andrea Stone

New spy chief's clout in doubt

Some want intelligence czar who's more than 'figurehead'

By Andrea Stone and John Diamond

USA Today

WASHINGTON - A day after President Bush endorsed the 9-11 commission's call to create a national intelligence director, members of Congress questioned how much authority that official would have under the administration's plan.

On opposite ends of Capitol Hill, lawmakers convened Tuesday for rare August hearings to begin work on the biggest shake-up in the nation's national security leadership since 1947, when the CIA was created. That work includes creating a post of national intelligence director and establishing a national counterterrorism center.

Some members of Congress and 9-11 commissioners doubt Bush's idea to allow the intelligence director to "coordinate" foreign and domestic intelligence fully embraces the commission's recommendation. The panel wants an intelligence czar with budget authority over the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency and 12 other spy agencies, and the power to hire and fire their chiefs.

"Another figurehead is not what the 9-11 commission recommended and what our nation needs," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said.

If the intelligence chief lacks real power, "it's better to do nothing," Commissioner Bob Kerrey told the House Government Reform Committee.

Kerrey predicted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who controls up to 85 percent of the $40 billion-plus intelligence budget, would repeat previous efforts to thwart civilian control over intelligence. He warned that the next time terrorists attack, "don't call the director of (the CIA) and blame him. They have the responsibility, but they don't have any budgetary responsibility or authority to get the job done."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the new director "is going to have an awful lot of authority when it comes to the budget and personnel matters." But he provided few specifics.

Democrats have accused the administration of a lack of clarity and say the White House is proposing another bureaucratic layer that would do nothing to promote cooperation among the nation's turf- conscious spy agencies.

"When everyone is in charge, no one is in charge," said Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the Government Affairs Committee.

Officials from four counterterrorism agencies told senators that they broadly supported Bush's proposal but took issue with specific changes pushed by the 9-11 commission and supported by some in Congress. John Brennan, director of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, cautioned against haste.

"What I wouldn't want to have happen is to have a tragedy because we moved precipitously," he said.

But when Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., pressed Brennan on why the FBI, CIA and other agencies haven't developed compatible computer systems and databases to speed information sharing, Brennan said critics don't understand the complexity of the problem.

The counterterrorism agencies represented at Tuesday's hearing underscored the 9-11 commission's point that there remain "stovepipes" in which intelligence gets stuck and is not shared among agencies.