Washington Post. "[Editorial:] Stampede on Intelligence." 2 Sep. 2004, A22. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]Materials arranged chronologically.
Washington Post. "[Editorial:] Stampede on Intelligence." 2 Sep. 2004, A22. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"Many of the recommendations by the Sept. 11 commission ... could tangibly improve the country's security.... Yet, rather than tackle ... mundane steps..., congressional leaders, joined by the White House, have begun a stampede to push through the commission's most attention-grabbing recommendation: a far-reaching and complex reorganization of the national intelligence community.... [T]his mad rush is occurring in the absence of consensus among leaders of the intelligence community or outside experts about whether the reorganization is necessary, much less how it should work.... Congress and the administration would be wise to resist the pressures of the political season and limit the extent of organizational change."
Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), "[Letter to the Editor:] No 'Mad Rush' to Reform," Washington Post, 3 Sep. 2004, A18 [http://www.washingtonpost.com], takes issue with this editorial's assertion that "Congress is engaged in a 'mad rush' to enact intelligence reform 'in the absence of consensus.'"
Dewar, Helen, and Charles Babington. "Intelligence Retooling on Agenda as Congress Returns." Washington Post, 8 Sep. 2004, A4. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 7 September 2004, a bill to approve all the 9/11 commission's proposals was introduced in the Senate by John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT). Republican leaders in the House "dismissed the McCain-Lieberman bill as a 'rubber stamp' of the commission that leaves little room for congressional ideas. They said a 'leadership bill' will be introduced by the end of the month, probably by Speaker J. Dennis Hastert" (R-IL).
Shenon, Philip. "Bipartisan Bill Offered on 9/11 Panel's Proposals." New York Times, 8 Sep. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]
A bill offered in the Senate on 7 September 2004 by John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) would "enact virtually all the [9/11] commission's recommendations, including its call for a national intelligence director to oversee all of the government's spy agencies.... The sweeping legislation was immediately embraced by the commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, who appeared at a Capitol Hill news conference to announce the bill's introduction."
Bumiller, Elisabeth, and Philip Shenon. "Bush Now Backs Budget Powers in New Spy Post." New York Times, 9 Sep. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]
On 8 September 2004, participants in a meeting in the White House Cabinet Room with congressional members from both parties said that President Bush and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice "told them that the administration wanted the new [national] intelligence director to have authority over the budget of the national program for collecting and sharing foreign intelligence. Effectively, that would give the new director control over as much as 75 percent of the estimated $40 billion that the government spends each year on intelligence, while the Pentagon would control the remaining 25 percent."
Pincus, Walter, and Dana Milbank. "Bush Plan Draws on Advice of 9/11 Panel: New Proposal Gives Intelligence Chief More Budget Power." Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2004, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 8 September 2004, President Bush in a meeting at the White House with congressional leaders "proposed giving a new national intelligence director ... control over more than two-thirds of the overall intelligence budget.... Bush's plan would not place the intelligence chief in the office of the president, and would ... leave intelligence gathering organizations such as the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office under the Pentagon's authority.... The White House would limit the director's budgetary control to the National Foreign Intelligence Program -- the official name for all foreign intelligence not related to tactical military operations."
Babington, Charles. "Hill Wary of Intelligence Oversight Changes: Lawmakers from Both Parties Resist Recommendations of 9/11 Commission." Washington Post, 12 Sep. 2004, A5. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
Pincus, Walter. "Support for Intelligence Plan: Powell, Ridge Back One Director but Defer to Bush on Specifics." Washington Post, 14 Sep. 2004, A4. [http://www.washingtonpost.com}
Appearing before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on 13 September 2004, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said "that creating a new national intelligence director could guard against the type of faulty intelligence that led him to tell the United Nations in February 2003 that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.... In testimony, [both] Powell and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge expressed support for appointment of a national intelligence chief, though each said there are still details to be worked out in the approach that will be supported by Bush."
Shenon, Philip. "Powell Rejects 9/11 Panel's Plan for Intelligence Office." New York Times, 14 Sep. 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com]
On 13 September 2004, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell disclosed that the Bush administration disagrees "with a major recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission and that the president did not want officials of the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the Pentagon to serve in the inner circle of a new national intelligence director.... He said President Bush thought 'that we need clear lines of authority' and that it would be a mistake to have officials who 'report to two different masters.'"
Gorman, Siobhan, and Richard E. Cohen. "Hurtling Toward an Intelligence Overhaul." National Journal, 18 Sep. 2004, 2807-2810.
Pincus, Walter, and Charles Babington. "Group Calls for Slowing Intelligence Reform." Washington Post, 22 Sep. 2004, A4. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 21 September 2004, "[a] bipartisan group of former senior Cabinet members, senators and national security officials, including former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George P. Shultz,... urged Congress not to rush to pass legislation restructuring the intelligence community based 'on an election timetable.'"
Best, Richard A., Jr. Proposals for Intelligence Reorganization, 1949-2004. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 24 Sep. 2004.
"Proposals for the reorganization of the United States Intelligence Community have repeatedly emerged from commissions and committees created by either the executive or legislative branches. The heretofore limited authority of Directors of Central Intelligence and the great influence of the Departments of State and Defense have inhibited the emergence of major reorganization plans from within the Intelligence Community itself."
Available at: http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32500.pdf.
Best, Richard A., Jr. The National Intelligence Director and Intelligence Analysis. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 30 Sep. 2004.
"Some observers believe" that placing the National Intelligence Council under the National Intelligence Director "will complicate a position that has essentially managerial responsibilities."
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