Coffman, Richard. "Is U.S. Intelligence Headed in the Wrong Direction?" U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 130, no. 12 (Dec. 2004): 2.Materials arranged chronologically.
Coffman, Richard. "Is U.S. Intelligence Headed in the Wrong Direction?" U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 130, no. 12 (Dec. 2004): 2.
"The 9/11 Commission's misguided intelligence recommendations and election-year pressures in a divided nation have intimidated politicians into supporting ill-conceived but politically popular measures." Clark comment: Well said!
Reuters. "Key facts: U.S. Intelligence Bill." 7 Dec. 2004. [http://www.reuters.com]
"The following are the highlights of legislation that would enact key intelligence reforms.... The legislation:
"* establishes the new Director of National Intelligence post to oversee the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. The director is to be approved by the Senate and will have control over much of the budget for U.S. spy agencies. The Pentagon retains control over battlefield assets.
"* establishes the National Counterterrorism Center to coordinate terrorism-related intelligence and conduct 'strategic operational planning,' which will include the mission, objectives, tasks and interagency coordination.
"* creates a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to ensure regulations and policies do not threaten privacy rights or civil liberties.
"* requires the secretary of homeland security to develop and implement a national strategy for transportation security, including steps to improve aviation, air cargo and maritime security.
"* calls for greater coordination and communication between all levels of government and emergency response providers.
"* requires the Department of Homeland Security to increase the numbers of border patrol agents by at least 2,000 per year and customs and immigration agents by at least 800 per year for five years.
"* tightens visa application requirements; requires a face-to-face consular interview of most applicants for non-immigrant visas between the ages of 14 and 79.
"* increases criminal penalties for alien smuggling and allows deportation of any alien who received military training from a group designated as a terrorist organization.
"* provides new authority to pursue 'lone wolf' terror suspects who are not affiliated with foreign terror groups.
"* authorizes funding for better technology and other federal support to improve efforts to fight money laundering and terrorist financing; requires better coordination and building on international coalitions to combat terrorist financing.
"* supports public diplomacy in foreign policy; supports further financial assistance of Pakistan and Afghanistan; calls for strengthening and assessing the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia."
Babington, Charles. "House Approves Intelligence Bill: Landmark Measure Passes by 336 to 75 Vote; Senate to Consider Legislation Today." Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2004, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 7 December 2004, the U.S. House of Representatives approved "legislation to restructure the nation's intelligence community, creating a director of national intelligence and a counterterrorism center.... [S]enators appear ready to pass the measure, send it to President Bush's desk and adjourn the 108th Congress."
DeBose, Brian. "House OKs Intelligence Reform Bill." Washington Times, 8 Dec. 2004. [http://www.washingtontimes.com]
On 7 December 2004, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Intelligence Reform Act, "a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's intelligence community."
Foley, Tom, and Newt Gingrich. "Protecting the Homeland." Washington Times, 8 Dec. 2004. [http://www.washingtontimes.com]
In this Op-Ed piece, the two former speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives argue for establishing a permanent Committee on Homeland Security. Congress and the President created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "to focus the government's counterterrorist efforts. Congress must now align itself with the new structure of the executive branch, or it will lose influence and DHS will lose focused congressional guidance at the most vulnerable early stages of its development."
Jehl, Douglas. "The Spymaster Question." New York Times, 8 Dec. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]
"The question is whether the changes [restructuring the U.S. intelligence community] will make much of a difference in combating terrorism and weapons proliferation.... [E]ven some supporters of the legislation ... acknowledge their own agnosticism.... [T]here is much that remains uncertain about the plan, with the legislation itself leaving much to be worked out by the agencies affected. Among these is the precise division of authority between the intelligence chief and the Pentagon, which until now has controlled 80 percent of the overall intelligence budget, and how much authority the intelligence chief will exert on operational matters."
Priest, Dana, and Walter Pincus. "Director's Control Is a Concern." Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2004, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
The legislation approved by the House on 7 December 2004 "represents a historic reordering of the ... intelligence community. But some experts say it is not at all evident how, or even if, the changes would help America's spies obtain secrets and aid analysts in determining the intentions of terrorists bent on striking again or worrisome nations developing weapons of mass destruction. The most significant changes target the top of the intelligence bureaucracy, rather than the field officers, agents and intercept operators who do the work of recruiting spies, penetrating organizations or finding and disrupting plots in motion."
Shenon, Philip. "House Overwhelmingly Approves Broad Overhaul of Intelligence." New York Times, 8 Dec. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]
The House voted on 8 December 2004 "to approve the sweeping intelligence-overhaul bill sought by President Bush and the independent Sept. 11 commission." Under an agreement among House Republicans, "a brief passage was inserted in the bill to require a national intelligence director to operate under guidelines that do not 'abrogate the statutory responsibilities' of the Defense Department, which [Duncan Hunter (R-CA), chairman of the Armed Services Committee] said would help prevent any interference in the Pentagon's use of intelligence and its transmission to soldiers on the battlefield."
Washington Post. "[Editorial:] Reform in Haste." 8 Dec. 2004, A30. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"The rhetoric emanating from Capitol Hill ... may have created the impression that ... Congress [has] worked its way to a sensible plan for reorganizing the U.S. intelligence community. Sadly, that is far from the truth.... What passed for a debate ... was actually little more than a turf battle by Pentagon satraps and the congressmen who share their interests on issues that are marginal to the broad reorganization outlined in the legislation. That shake-up ... may improve the quality of intelligence information supplied to the president and other key policymakers; we have our doubts."
Council on Foreign Relations. "Intelligence Reform." 9 Dec. 2004. [http://www.cfr.org/background/intel_reform.php [no longer active link on 8/31/06].
Summarizes the provisions of the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.
Pincus, Walter. "Intelligence Bill Clears Congress: Bush Expected to Approve Post-9/11 Reforms Next Week." Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2004, A4. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
The U.S. Senate approved the intelligence restructuring bill on 8 December 2004 and "sent it to the White House, where President Bush is expected to sign it into law next week."
Shenon, Philip. "Senate Approves Intelligence Bill." New York Times, 9 Dec. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]
The Senate voted 89 to 2 to send the bill restructuring the nation's intelligence community to President Bush, "who has promised to sign it." The bill's Senate authors have acknowledged that the new national intelligence director "would not have all of the powers that the Sept. 11 commission envisioned."
Pinck, Charles T., and Dan Pinck. "The Best Spies Didn't Wear Suits." New York Times, 10 Dec. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]
This Op-Ed piece from the a son-father tandem proposes OSS, rather than CIA, as the model for reorganizing the U.S. intelligence community. Specifically, they argue for a Donovan-like leader ("unconventional warfare requires unconventional people"). Clark comment: Not a bad thought standing by itself. However, if the Pincks truly believe that Donovan was "above the [political] infighting," they are reading Donovan differently than he is seen by many others.
Pincus, Walter. "President Gets to Fill Ranks of New Intelligence Superstructure: Reform Legislation Is Set to Be Signed Into Law on Friday [17 December 2004]." Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2004, A35. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"President Bush is searching ... for a new director of national intelligence [DNI]..., a principal deputy DNI, a director of a new national counterterrorism center, and a general counsel to the DNI, all of whom must be presidential appointees subject to Senate confirmation. In addition, the new chief information officer for the DNI ... will also be a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate, under a provision of the fiscal 2005 intelligence authorization bill. Further, the intelligence reform bill requires the president to name a chairman and a vice chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board.... They, too, are subject to a Senate vote."
Baker, Peter, and Walter Pincus. "Bush Signs Intelligence Reform Bill: President Now Must Find an Experienced Hand to Guide 15 Agencies." Washington Post, 18 Dec. 2004, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 17 December 2004, President Bush signed into law "the broadest reorganization of the nation's intelligence community in more than half a century.... [T]he legislation left many recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission still unfulfilled, including restructuring congressional oversight as well as broader strategic efforts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Nor did it address commission recommendations to rethink U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia or to expand diplomatic efforts to win friends in the Muslim world."
Clark comment: Thus endth the "will they or won't they" debate. Further coverage is available under the heading of Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.
Shenon, Philip, and Eric Lipton. "9/11 Panel Members to Lobby for a Restructured Congress." New York Times, 21 Dec. 2004, A20.
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