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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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 Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:52 am Bush Endorses Several Intel Changes |
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Bush Backs Some Intel Changes
Monday, August 02, 2004
WASHINGTON � President Bush (search) is now poised to endorse two of the main recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission (search), including naming a national intelligence director and creating a National Counterterrorism Center.
However, he will make these changes in his own way, with some significant departures from the commission's recommendations, senior administration officials said Monday.
Bush's decision to embrace these two recommendations, with some changes, are the first steps the president is taking to revamp the nation's intelligence-gathering system to help thwart terrorist attacks. The commission's report, released late last month, highlighted lapses in intelligence that left America vulnerable to the 2001 terror attacks.
The subject takes on special currency with the announcement Sunday by authorities that they had uncovered a plot by the Al Qaeda (search) terror network to attack five prominent financial institutions in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J.
Although Bush will call for a national intelligence director to oversee all 15 of the nation's intelligence agencies, officials say the office would be outside the White House, which is a departure from the commission's recommendations.
The commission envisions that the National Counterterrorism Center will be a joint operational planning and intelligence center staffed by personnel from all the spy agencies and will be inside the White House. But Bush also wants the center to be outside the White House, officials said.
"We want to ensure that the intelligence operators and analysts maintain their autonomy" and "that has to be a key consideration at the issue of where you place either of those," said a senior administration official, who asked not to be named.
Currently, the CIA (search) director not only heads his own agency but also oversees the U.S. intelligence community, which has grown to 15 agencies. But the director has neither budgetary authority nor day-to-day operational control of the other agencies, most of which are in the Defense Department. A national intelligence director would oversee all the agencies.
Bush's announcement comes after his Democratic opponent John Kerry (search) embraced all of the commission's recommendations and accused the president of dragging his feet on intelligence reforms.
"I think this administration has dropped the ball on homeland security," Kerry told "Fox News Sunday."
"I think they are now moving to catch up. But what America wants is leadership that's ahead of the curve, that doesn't have to be told by an independent commission � which they, incidentally, fought to prevent," Kerry said.
Administration officials had said that endorsing all of the commission's recommendations could have unintended consequences.
The administration also said it has already taken steps that respond to some of the 40 recommendations the commission outlined in its 567-page report, released July 22, that highlighted intelligence lapses that led to the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The White House has issued its own 20-page report listing actions it has taken that are consistent with the panel's recommendations.
In addition to proposals for the national director of intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center, the report says Bush's senior advisers are preparing recommendations on how best to move forward in the following areas:
� Hiring and training more people to collect intelligence.
� Setting standards for issuing birth certificates and other forms of identification, such as driver's licenses, to reduce fraud.
� Disclosing now-secret parts of the federal budget to let the public know how much money is being spent on intelligence.
� Shifting the lead responsibility for directing and executing paramilitary operations, both clandestine and covert, to the Defense Department.
� Improving and setting common standards for information-sharing throughout the intelligence community.
� Speeding up national security appointments during administration changeovers.
� Setting up a national security workforce at the FBI comprising analysts, linguists and surveillance specialists to concentrate on national security.
� Regularly assessing the strategies used by the Northern Command (search), the only military command focusing solely on defending U.S. soil.
Fox News' Wendell Goler and Peter Brownfeld and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
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| Mon Aug 02, 2004 12:33 pm |
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All I can say is, "Good for America" and "Vote Bush and we will HAVE reform. Kerry's all talk and won't do anything. Just look at his voting record--look at the REAL John Kerry. That's why he won't talk about his voting record."
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"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
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