CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING
NEWS OF THE WEEK AUGUST 30, 2004 - EDITED BY WILLIAM G. SCHULZ & LINDA WANG
REFORMS
INTELLIGENCE OVERHAUL Proposal would dismantle CIA, move some key Pentagon intelligence agencies
S
EN. PAT ROBERTS' ( R - K A N . )
proposal for remodeling the nation's intelligence com munity isn't the first, but it is the most sweeping, surpassing even the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Unlike other plans, it moves beyond defining the power of a so-called National In telligence Director (NID). In a surprise announcement on a recent talk show, Roberts un furled a plan that realigns key ele ments of the intelligence commu nity into a new entity called the National Intelligence Service. His plan, which he calls "real reform," would dismantle the Central In telligence Agency and loosen the Pentagon's grip on the nation's $40 billion intelligence budget. If the proposal should become law, it leaves unclear the fate of Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), whom President George W Bush nominated for CIA director. Roberts, who chairs the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, crafted the proposal without no tifying the White House and with no input from committee Dem ocrats. Response to it has been tepid at best, damning at worst. President Bush has been non committal, saying he would study all the options. Sen. John F. Ker ry's (D-Mass.) presidential cam paign has indicated tentative sup port. Congressional Democrats cite the absence ofbipartisanship, and intelligence officials criticize the plan as a step back from greater interagency cooperation. HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
Nevertheless, it is likely to frame the upcoming congressional de bate on intelligence reform. The plan's boldest aspect would convert the CIA's three main directorates—operations, intelligence, and science and technology—into three separate agencies, all under the NID's control. Three of the Pentagon's largest intelligence agencies — the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelli gence Agency's (DIA) Human Intelligence Directorate—would also be placed under the NID. Additionally, the plan wouldgive the NID budget and personnel au thority over the intelligence units of the Departments of Treasury, Energy, Homeland Security, and State, as well as the remaining an alytical elements of the DIA. On a day-to-day basis, however, these units would continue to report to their respective home agencies. The FBI's counterintelligence and counterterrorism units would continue to operate within the FBI for administrative purposes and would remain subject to Attorney General guidelines, but their bud getary and personnel authority would come from the N I D In congressional testimony on intelligence reform, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned, "Ifwe move unwisely and get it wrong, the penalty would be great." Perhaps heeding this advice, Roberts plan sets up a sep arate assistant N I D for military
support and a four-star general for military intelligence who would run the Pentagon's tacti cal intelligence units and report to the defense secretary but liaise with the NID. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W Va.) —who is vice chairman of the Senate intelligence com mittee but was not privy to pro posal deliberations—is concerned "that disbanding and scattering CD
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the CIA at such a crucial time would be a severe mistake." Former CIA director GeorgeJ. Tenet echoes Rockefeller's fear in a written statement that blasts the Roberts plan as an "ill-conceived" scheme for gutting the CIA. 'This proposal reflects a dangerous mis understanding of the business of intelligence," one that "would damage U.S. national security rather than improve it,"Tenet says. Rockefeller also observes that Roberts' proposal "departs sig nificantly from the 9/11 Com mission's blueprint for reform." The commission's recommenda tions set up an N I D to oversee all intelligence agencies but did not call for dismantling the CIA or removing some intelligence agencies from Pentagon control. Commission Deputy Chairman Lee H. Hamilton says: "We're looking at these differences. We are going to have to work through them."-L0IS EMBER
TAKING IT IN Sens. Rockefeller (left) and Roberts listen intently at a hearing held by the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.
MORE ONLINE An organizational chart of Roberts' proposed National Intelligence Service is available at http://www.cen. online.org.
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