Intelligence agencies to link databases with new department

The FBI and CIA are looking at ways to develop terrorist databases linked to the proposed Homeland Security Department in an effort to identify and stop terrorists intending to harm the United States, the agencies' directors told a Senate committee Thursday.

"We are examining how best to create and share a multi-agency, government-wide database that captures all information relevant to any of the many watch lists that are currently managed by a variety of agencies," CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

The new department must connect electronically with members of the intelligence community, he said. "The intelligence community already has in place the architecture and multiple channels necessary for sharing intelligence reporting and analysis at all levels of classification," Tenet said.

The CIA will provide the new department with its technology and work with the department as the latter develops compatible systems. The sharing of information will be possible for federal, state and local communities.

Tenet acknowledged that "there may well be some overlap and even some redundancy in evaluating what the nation's foreign intelligence and law enforcement communities provide." But, he said, "This is welcome."

The role of the new department, Tenet said, will be "to translate assessments about evolving terrorist targeting strategies, training and doctrine overseas into a system of protection for the infrastructure of the United States." The department will review the intelligence provided by the CIA and develop an action plan to counter threats, he said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said the agency could provide "99.9 percent" of the information that the department wants. The FBI has implemented at headquarters enhanced data collection that allows analysis of data collected from the separate offices. But improvements still are needed, such as in the search capabilities, he said.

Mueller said the FBI is lagging behind the CIA in information technology upgrades and has a way to go before it can digitally exchange information between departments.

Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., called for a new intelligence structure in which the secretary of the new department could request that intelligence and law-enforcement agencies collect information. He said the witnesses agreed to the proposal in a similar hearing on Wednesday, though the idea would be different from the proposal made by President Bush. That proposal envisions a "more passive" intelligence role for the Homeland Security secretary, focused mainly on critical infrastructure and requiring the approval of the president.

Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, the committee's ranking Republican, warned that the current transformation within the intelligence community should be resolved before trying to fit the agencies to the new department. "We're sort of skateboarding while trying to juggle, you might say," Thompson said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) circulated a statement at the hearing criticizing the Bush proposal as establishing an agency "long on secrecy and short on much-needed accountability." The ACLU said it would "hobble" the Freedom of Information Act, limit citizen input, lack oversight, "muzzle" whistleblowers and threaten personal privacy. ACLU urged that the FBI and CIA be kept distinct from the new department.