Agencies can't connect intelligence dots, panel told

U.S. intelligence agencies still lack the ability to quickly and effectively analyze massive amounts of intelligence data being collected, raising concerns that the director of national intelligence does not have sufficient authority to improve the situation, according to lawmakers and the leaders of the national commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"We are collecting more information than ever before," former New Jersey Republican Gov. Thomas Kean, who chaired the 9/11 Commission, told the House Homeland Security Committee Wednesday.

Congress created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center five years ago to ensure that intelligence is analyzed and integrated. But recent intelligence failures have raised major concerns that intelligence agencies are not getting the job done, including the attempted bombing of a passenger plane as it approached Detroit on Christmas.

"We have this humongous data collection under way," Homeland Security Chairman Committee Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said. "But the question is what and how we're doing with it after we collect it. And is that our next challenge."

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, said connecting intelligence dots is "the core problem" for agencies today. "The greatest challenge in effect ... to the intelligence community is the management of the data that comes in," said Hamilton, who testified along with Kean.

The Senate Intelligence Committee seized on this issue Tuesday, when it released the results of its investigation of the Christmas bombing attempt, saying that 14 human, technology and policy obstacles prevented the government from analyzing intelligence that could have stopped the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Hamilton said the problem of analyzing intelligence is the result of ambiguity in the 2005 law defining the authority of the director of national intelligence. "I do not believe you're going to get the sharing that you need without somebody forcing it. And that person needs to be the DNI," Hamilton said.

He said Congress ultimately has the responsibility to change the law but added that it is unlikely to do so anytime soon, meaning President Obama must implement changes through executive power.

"The burden is on the president now to clarify who is in charge of the intelligence community, where the final authority lies on budget, personnel and other matters," Hamilton said.

Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he believes the DNI has very little power and that U.S. intelligence policy is being driven more and more from inside the White House by the administration's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan.

King said he thinks Brennan has an inordinate amount of power but said he is beyond the reach of Congress because he is a senior White House adviser.