[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: A G.O.P. Senator Proposes a Plan to Split Up C.I.A.

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A G.O.P. Senator Proposes a Plan to Split Up C.I.A.

August 23, 2004
 By PHILIP SHENON 



 

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - The Republican chairman of the Senate
intelligence committee said Sunday that he would propose
legislation to break up the Central Intelligence Agency and
divide its responsibilities among three new spy agencies. 

The plan would eliminate the Pentagon's direct control over
the National Security Agency and create a post of national
intelligence director with virtually complete control over
the government's $40 billion annual intelligence budget. 

The sweeping proposal, by Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas,
which would also provide the national intelligence director
with budget authority over counterterrorism and
counterintelligence programs of the F.B.I., goes far beyond
the recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission.


Aides to Senator Roberts said he had obtained support in
principle from eight of nine Republicans on the
intelligence committee and would present it Monday to the
White House and to members of the Sept. 11 commission,
whose final report has prompted President Bush and
lawmakers to rush to overhaul the way the nation gathers
and shares intelligence. 

The plan is certain to be fiercely opposed by the C.I.A.,
which would cease to exist, its responsibilities shifted
elsewhere and its name probably eliminated; by the
Pentagon, which would have to cede control over the N.S.A.
and other defense intelligence agencies that it long
described as essential to the military; and by several
influential members of Congress who have warned against any
drastic restructuring of the nation's intelligence
community. 

"Our bill is real reform, and it's the right thing to do,"
Mr. Roberts said in a statement announcing the bill, which
he titled the "9/11 National Security Protection Act." "We
cannot allow turf battles to define this debate. No one
agency, no matter how distinguished its history, is more
important than U.S. national security." 

A White House spokesman, Brian Besanceney, did not comment
on the specifics of Senator Roberts's proposal but said,
"We welcome ideas from members of Congress and will
continue to work with Congress to accomplish the shared
goal of intelligence reform and will look forward to
reviewing the details of Senator Roberts's plan." 

A C.I.A. spokesman said the agency would not comment until
it saw details of Mr. Roberts's plan. 

But a senior intelligence official, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said: "The proposal is unworkable and would
hamper rather than enhance the nation's intelligence
efforts at a critical time. It doesn't make any sense.'' 

The official added, "Rather than bringing intelligence
disciplines together it smashes them apart." 

Mr. Roberts's proposal brought a mixed reaction from
Democrats. Rand Beers, a national security adviser to
Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate,
said in a statement that Mr. Kerry welcomed the plan and
that it was similar to proposals from Mr. Kerry, who has
embraced all of the recommendations of the Sept. 11
commission, including creation of a powerful job of
national intelligence director. 

But Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is a member
of the intelligence committee and the ranking Democrat on
the Senate Armed Services Committee, offered immediate
resistance, saying it was a mistake for Senator Roberts to
move on overhauling the intelligence community without
obtaining the support of Democrats. 

"It's a mistake to begin with a partisan bill no matter
what is in it," Mr. Levin said on the CBS program "Face the
Nation." While not directly criticizing Mr. Roberts's plan,
Mr. Levin, who has expressed skepticism over some of the
major recommendations made by the Sept. 11 commission,
said, "I think it's better to start on a bipartisan basis
with a bipartisan bill." 

Aides to Mr. Roberts said he had obtained support for the
plan from all of the Republicans on the intelligence
committee except Senator John Warner of Virginia, who is
also chairman of the Armed Services Committee. 

Mr. Warner suggested in comments last week that he feared
that lawmakers were moving hastily in restructuring the
intelligence community and that it might be dangerous for
the Pentagon to lose control over intelligence agencies
needed by soldiers on the battlefield. 

But another Republican on the committee, Senator Mike
DeWine of Ohio, said in a telephone interview Sunday that
he supported Mr. Roberts's proposal. 

"My understanding is that it has good support on the
committee based on the informal conversations I have had
with members over the last several weeks," he said. "This
bill matches, I think, the desires of the vast majority of
the members of the Senate intelligence committee to address
the longstanding problems.'' 

Shawna Stribling, spokeswoman for Senator Christopher S.
Bond of Missouri, another Republican on the committee, said
Mr. Bond supported the legislation and believed it would
"help prevent another 9/11." According to a statement
released by Mr. Roberts outlining his bill, the legislation
would make these changes: 

¶Establish the office of national intelligence director,
who would have even more authority than was envisioned by
the 9/11 commission in its final report. The intelligence
director would have "complete budget and personnel
authority, including hiring and firing authority," over the
government's spy operations, including "the national
intelligence collection agencies currently residing in the
Department of Defense." The Pentagon's spy services include
the National Security Agency, which gathers intelligence
through satellites and other electronic eavesdropping. 

¶Break up the C.I.A. into three parts: a National
Clandestine Service, which would direct traditional human
spy operations; an Office of National Assessments, which
would be responsible for intelligence analysis; and an
Office of Technical Support, which would be responsible for
research and development projects. The new agencies would
report to the national intelligence director through a
small team of deputies. 

¶Remove the Defense Intelligence Agency's
human-intelligence spy operations from the Pentagon and
establish them as an independent agency, also under the
control of the national intelligence director. 

¶Provide the national intelligence director, through one of
his assistants, with "direct control over the F.B.I.'s
counterintelligence and counterterrorism units," which
would continue to operate within the F.B.I. "for
administration and support purposes and would still be
subject to attorney general guidelines." 

¶Provide the national intelligence director with "complete
budget and personnel authority over the intelligence units
of Treasury, Energy, Homeland Security, State Department
and the remaining analytical elements of the C.I.A." Those
agencies would "report to their home agencies on a
day-to-day basis to maintain their analytical
independence." 

Also appearing on CBS, Senator Roberts said he and the
bill's other Republican supporters "just sort of stepped
back from the trees and, instead of worrying about boxes
and agencies and turf, just said, What would you put
together now that really represents an answer to what the
9/11 commission has recommended and what our Senate report
has indicated?" 

He was referring to the intelligence committee's blistering
report made public last month that found that the C.I.A.
had misrepresented the intelligence that the Bush
administration used to take the nation to war in Iraq last
year. 

"I expect a lot of debate, should be a lot of debate," Mr.
Roberts said, adding that he was open to rethinking parts
of his legislation. "It is not a tablet, you know, coming
down from a mountain, written in stone." 

Courtney C. Radsch contributed reporting for this article.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/politics/23intel.html?ex=1094280033&ei=1&en=b77a66502f9505e0


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