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U.S. Senators Call For Intelligence Reform By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — Two members of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday called for reforms to improve U.S. intelligence following Friday’s release of the committee’s report that harshly criticized the CIA’s performance regarding prewar Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, July 9). During an appearance on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said there was a need to reshape the structure of the U.S. intelligence community. The CIA director is presently the de facto head of U.S. intelligence, but lacks full authority and budgetary control over the 15 agencies involved in intelligence activities. “If that director can’t move the chairs on the deck of the Titanic, can’t set strategies across the community, can’t really work in a way that properly red teams and that can’t bring the subtleties of a judgment to the decision-makers, then you’ve got to change the structure,” Feinstein said. As one reform measure, Feinstein and Lott yesterday reiterated calls for establishing a director of national intelligence, who would be separate from the head of the CIA and would have full control over the entire U.S. intelligence community. On Friday, following the release of the Senate intelligence panel’s report on prewar Iraq intelligence, Feinstein called on lawmakers to support a bill originally introduced in 2002 that would establish a national director of intelligence with the ability to set intelligence collection priorities and full authority over the U.S. intelligence budget. U.S. President George W. Bush said Friday that the White House is considering several intelligence-reform proposals, including improved human intelligence and technological capabilities and measures to improve coordination among intelligence agencies. He did not mention, though, any structural reforms to the intelligence community. Citing White House intelligence advisers, the New York Times reported yesterday that the administration is not likely to substantively address the issue of intelligence reform until at least next year. “The president hasn’t decided how deeply he wants to take this on now,” the Times quoted a senior official as saying. “Everyone knows that serious reform is going to be strongly opposed by the Pentagon and the armed services committees,” the official said. While acknowledging the mistakes outlined in the Senate intelligence committee’s massive report, the CIA Friday cautioned against sweeping intelligence reform measures. “Remember there’s no perfection in this business. In other words, some sort of reordering of the boxes here will not bring you perfection in the intelligence business. There is no profit and loss or bottom line in this vital industry. How do you measure, how do you balance a hundred successes against one failure?” said acting CIA Director John McLaughlin. In a speech delivered late last month, McLaughlin opposed the creation of a national director of intelligence, saying it was better to improve the ability of the CIA director to act as director of central intelligence. “I believe the benefits of a position like that [national director of intelligence] can be found without the additional layers of command or bureaucracy such a change would inevitably bring. The benefits can be found by modernizing the structures we already have,” he said. McLaughlin said Friday that the CIA had already taken steps to address one problem listed in the Senate report — the creation of National Intelligence Estimates. While the agency’s 2002 report on Iraq’s alleged WMD efforts failed to contain in its summary a number of the caveats listed in the full report, McLaughlin said that this would no longer be the case in the future. “In the future our summary of estimates will mirror exactly what we’re saying in the body of the estimate. If you look at the body of this estimate you will see the differences in the community are absolutely laid out in great detail, the qualifiers are there,” he said. Senate intelligence committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said yesterday that his committee plans to hold hearings on intelligence reform in two weeks. McLaughlin, who previously served as agency deputy director, assumed control of the CIA yesterday following the formal resignation of former Director George Tenet (see GSN, July 9). According to the Times, Bush is set to name a formal replacement for Tenet within the next two weeks. Several U.S. senators, including Roberts and the Senate intelligence panel’s top Democrat, Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), called on the administration yesterday to quickly name a replacement for Tenet. “I hope the administration will send somebody up. There’s four or five people that, I think, have been talked about. It’ll have to be an extraordinary nominee. If that’s the case, we will go full-time into the hearings to get him — or her – confirmed,” Roberts said on NBC’s Meet The Press. Among the various names that have been suggested for the position of CIA director are House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Porter Goss (R-Fla.), Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and former Defense Secretary Sam Nunn. While Lott said that Goss “probably would have the edge,” Rockefeller suggested yesterday that Democrats would oppose him as being too political. “I don’t think that anybody who should be up for consideration should have a political background,” Rockefeller said on Meet the Press. Feinstein said yesterday, though, that intelligence reform should be addressed before a new permanent CIA director is appointed. “We have now taken over a year on this report and I feel very strongly that … there are powerful interests ... in this government that don’t want to change the structure,” she said. “If you get a new director that aligns himself with those powerful interests, we will never have major reform,” Feinstein added.
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