Overhaul of intelligence operations mulled by lawmakers

The 9/11 commission's vision for overhauling the U.S. intelligence community would make the Pentagon's undersecretary for intelligence a deputy to a new national intelligence director, but allow the secretary of defense to override operational plans, two leading commissioners said Tuesday.

The commission's chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, and vice chairman, former Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton, testified before the House Armed Services Committee on how their recommendations would affect the Defense Department.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., blasted federal agencies for blocking previous efforts to enact reform. He said most of the commission's recommendations are not new, asserting that the problem in making change is "the arrogance of the entrenched agency bureaucracy," which "doesn't want to hear it from the Congress. They will find a way to manipulate the legislative process," Weldon said.

"I think in taking the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, we better understand that the problem is going to be far more difficult than just knowing what needs to be done," he added. "It's going to be dealing with an agency system of entrenched bureaucrats who think they have all the answers and all the solutions, and they don't want to hear from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue."

Weldon said the House Armed Services Committee proposed the creation of a national collaborative intelligence center in 1999, but the idea was blocked mainly by the CIA.

Kean and Hamilton responded to recent criticisms of the commission's final analysis, and defended two key recommendations--a new national intelligence director and creating a national counterterrorism center.

For example, they said the national counterterrorism center would not break the military chain of command.

"The NCTC would develop joint plans for terrorism operations with military officers directly involved in the planning," Hamilton said. "If the secretary of defense didn't like the plan, the plan would change. Or, the head of the NCTC would have to bump this issue up to the National Security Council and the president for resolution."

They also said that intelligence units within individual services would still report to their service secretaries and chiefs.

The Pentagon's undersecretary for intelligence, currently Stephen Cambone, would be a deputy to the new national intelligence director under the commission's plan. Hamilton said that relationship is necessary so the Pentagon would continue to have direct control over national intelligence assets that are critical to warfighters.

Cambone is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, along with Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, director of the National Security Agency.

Kean and Hamilton also said the responsibility for directing and executing paramilitary operations should shift from the CIA to the Defense Department. They added that the Pentagon and its oversight committees should regularly assess the adequacy of Northern Command to defend the country.

They backed away, however, from demanding that the national intelligence director and national counterterrorism center be part of the executive office of the president. Several current and former government officials have criticized that proposal, saying it might lead to abuses of power and politicize intelligence.

"We do not want to get too fixated on the location of boxes," Hamilton said. "The authorities are more important than the boxes. But if these new positions are not in the executive office of the president, where do they go? We certainly do not believe they should be in the Defense Department or the CIA. It would be a mistake to subsume intelligence and operations planning within these organizations."

Kean acknowledged the challenges in making reforms, but said he believes the timing is right.

"This may be our one chance to reform government," he said. "Now has to be the time, because if we don't get this done now, we are facing more terrorist attacks, and the American people will be less safe rather than safer."