Power of spy chief still remains hazy
International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush on Friday signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence gathering in 50 years, hoping to improve the spy network that failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks.
The 563-page bill, which endured a thorny path to congressional passage, also aims to tighten borders and aviation security. It creates a federal counterterrorism center and a new intelligence director, but Bush did not announce a candidate for that post at the ceremony Friday.
Bush was joined at the signing ceremony by Porter Goss, the CIA director; Robert Mueller, director of the FBI; members of Congress; leaders of the Sept. 11 commission; and relatives of people killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
The new position of national intelligence director was one of the bill's most controversial aspects. Although the legislation gives the new director strong budget authority, its language is complex enough that there could be continued debate over the director's power.
But Bush attempted to leave no doubt about the sweeping nature of the intelligence director's budgetary authority.
Bush said it would be the director's responsibility "to determine the annual budgets of all national intelligence agencies and offices and to direct how these funds are spent," he said.
The new structure was designed to help the nation's 15 intelligence agencies work together to prevent attacks like the ones that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.
The Sept. 11 Commission, in its July report, said disharmony among the intelligence agencies contributed to the inability of the government to prevent the attacks. Commission members and families of the Sept. 11 victims lobbied persistently for the legislation through the summer political conventions, the election and a postelection lame duck session of Congress. The bill was threatened by disagreements between the White House and key House Republicans about immigration issues and how the new national intelligence director would work with the nation's military.
Bush was criticized for not engaging aggressively enough with members of his own party to break the impasse. But in the final days, he and Vice President Dick Cheney pushed hard for the legislation, and both the House and the Senate passed it overwhelmingly.
The new law includes a host of anti-terrorism provisions, such as letting officials wiretap "lone wolf" terrorists and improving airline baggage screening procedures. It increases the number of full-time border patrol agents by 2,000 per year for five years and imposes new federal standards on information that driver's licenses must contain.
http://www.iht.com/articles
/2004/12/17/news/intel.html
Posted by Editor at December 17, 2004 09:29 PM
