Officials: Real intelligence reform could take 10 years

It will take years--possibly a decade--before the restructured national intelligence community functions at an acceptable level, current and former government officials said Monday.

In the meantime, John Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, will have to vigorously fight attempts to limit his power and resist getting sucked into counterproductive turf battles as he manages reform across the nation's 15 intelligence agencies, the officials said.

"You've got an established order with a bureaucratic way of doing things. There are going to be winners and losers and the losers are not going to go quietly into the night," said former Navy secretary John Lehman, who served as a Republican member of the 9/11 commission. "They're going to use their resources, and their congressional friends on the Hill and their committee staffers who also want to hold on to turf."

Lehman said that under Negroponte's leadership, within two years the intelligence community could be effectively sharing information and setting priorities. But implementing better processes, especially with regard to information technology, will probably take a decade or more, he said.

Retired Adm. William Studeman said he believes it will be 10 years before the intelligence community is "functioning at an acceptable or above acceptable level of performance."

"We established the national security structure in this country in 1947," he said. "That was the structure that we were going to fight the Cold War with. And the intel community, in my view, took 10 or 20 years before it started to really run on all eight cylinders and dealing with that particular threat target. We haven't got that amount of time with this current threat set."

Lehman moderated a panel discussion on challenges facing the DNI with Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., Studeman and National Journal correspondent Siobhan Gorman. Harman is the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. Studeman is a former director of the National Security Agency, recently served on the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction and is currently a member of the Defense Science Board.

The panel was the second of nine public forums to be convened this summer by the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, which was created by former members and staff of the 9/11 commission, which issued its final report and recommendations almost one year ago. Most of the proposals were written into law through the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. The Public Discourse Project plans to issue a "report card" on how much progress has been made -- and where gaps still exist -- by the end of the summer.

Panel members said Negroponte will have to continue to fend off attempts aimed at rolling back his powers. They cited a legislative fight that ended last week that would have reduced Negroponte's authority to transfer personnel.

The intelligence reform law gives Negroponte the power to transfer up to 100 personnel each year throughout the intelligence community. An amendment to the House Intelligence Authorization bill for fiscal 2006, however, would have required the DNI to wait for a response from the appropriate congressional committee before he could transfer personnel. For example, if Negroponte wanted to move personnel from a Defense Department agency, he would have to notify the House and Senate Armed Services Committee and wait for a response. If no response came, then the move wouldn't be allowed.

The amendment was introduced by Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Critics viewed the amendment as the first attempt to lessen Negroponte's powers.

Negroponte's office objected to the amendment, with the backing of Harman, the Bush administration and family members of some 9/11 victims. Former 9/11 commissioners also sent Hoekstra and Harman a letter asking for the amendment to be withdrawn. Under pressure, Hoekstra dropped his support for the amendment last week.

"My bottom line is we did win this battle," Harman said. "It remains to [be seen] whether we won the war. We still have to get the bill up on the House floor … and the bill has to pass by overwhelming margins, all of which I expect to happen. Then I think we will have set a very strong precedent against other efforts to weaken the law."

Lehman called the amendment "a major assault," but not the last attack.

"I do think it's the first of many skirmishes, many screams in the night and back-office maneuvering," Lehman said. "There are going to be many others that are going to go after the power of the DNI and each one is going to have to be fought as vigorously."

Lehman added that Negroponte will also have to avoid getting caught up in counterproductive bureaucratic turf battles. "The danger of being sucked into day-to-day operational matters and decision-making and details is very real," he said.