Powell Rejects 9/11 Panel's Plan for Intelligence Office -NYT

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - The Bush administration said Monday that it disagreed with a major recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission and that the president did not want officials of the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the Pentagon to serve in the inner circle of a new national intelligence director.

The position was disclosed in Congressional testimony by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. He said President Bush thought "that we need clear lines of authority" and that it would be a mistake to have officials who "report to two different masters."

Mr. Powell's testimony was the first time the administration publicly rejected a central recommendation of the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission, which found that the nation's method for gathering and sharing intelligence was "dysfunctional" and needed to be brought under the control of a single, cabinet-level intelligence officer.

The panel's final report, which has led to a whirlwind of activity at the White House and on Capitol Hill to overhaul American intelligence agencies, called for the appointment of a national intelligence director whose deputies would include the director of central intelligence as well as senior officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pentagon.

http://nytimes.com/2004/09/14/politics/14panel.html

[w4rma]

1. I agree with Powell and Bush, I think. Wierd.

More bureaucracy isn't the answer. And adding another unelected office isn't either, imho.

The intellegence failures weren't caused by the CIA or FBI. They were caused by Bush, Cheney and the filter that Bush/Cheney put between the CIA/FBI and themselves (who called themselves "The Cabal" and whose jobs were to twist the intellegence in favor of invading Iraq).