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Panel leader praises plan for cia split { August 25 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/25/politics/25panel.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/25/politics/25panel.html
August 25, 2004
9/11 Panel Leader Has Praise for Plan to Split C.I.A.
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 - The chairman of the Sept. 11 commission said on Tuesday that a far-reaching proposal by several Senate Republicans to break up the C.I.A. and move other intelligence agencies outside the Pentagon appeared to be a "constructive alternative" to the commission's proposals and reflected a growing view that "the present situation is unacceptable."
The chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, did not endorse the Senate proposal to divide the C.I.A. into three new spy agencies, noting that he had not seen details of the legislation proposed by Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
But in testimony to the House International Relations Committee, Mr. Kean said that "as I've read it in the newspapers, I think Senator Roberts's proposal is a constructive alternative" and "the one thing we do concur on absolutely is that the present situation is unacceptable and has to be changed."
The testimony Tuesday from Mr. Kean and the commission's deputy chairman, Lee H. Hamilton, may be useful to Mr. Roberts in pursuing his legislation, which has been fiercely attacked by several influential members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, and has clearly shocked officials at the C.I.A. and the Pentagon.
Their comments suggested that Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton were willing to work with Mr. Roberts and his allies in the Senate and House to fashion legislation that would accomplish their common goal, an intelligence overhaul far more sweeping than anything that the Bush administration has suggested it would accept.
In a statement issued late Monday to employees of the C.I.A., the acting director of central intelligence, John E. McLaughlin, described Mr. Roberts's plan as a "step backward" and said, "We are nowhere near the end of this debate." He predicted that there would be no "breakup of the C.I.A. given the agency's vital front-line role in the war on terror."
In his House testimony, Mr. Hamilton offered no similar prediction, praising Senator Roberts and his fellow Republicans on the intelligence committee as "very sound people" and saying, "We will look at those proposals very carefully."
"There are a lot of commonalities between what we have recommended and what he has recommended," said Mr. Hamilton, referring to Senator Roberts. "He says the status quo's not acceptable. He believes reform is necessary. He supports creation of a national intelligence director."
At the same time, however, Mr. Hamilton said that "it's a little too early for me to make any judgment about" Mr. Roberts's plan. He added that the proposal called "for a much larger adjustment - I'm not sure that's the right word - but adjustment in the C.I.A. than we have suggested, and he calls for more removal of some of the D.O.D. intelligence agencies from the direction of the Pentagon than we do."
Like the Senate proposal, the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission called for creating a powerful national intelligence director to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies. But unlike the Senate proposal, the commission did not call for the C.I.A. to be broken up, or for intelligence agencies now within the Pentagon to be removed from the Defense Department's control.
There was movement elsewhere in the Senate on Tuesday on the commission's recommendations, with the Senate's Republican and Democratic leaders announcing formation of a 22-member bipartisan "working group" to review the commission's call for Congress to reorganize the way it oversees intelligence agencies.
The majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, and the Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said in a joint statement that the working group would set to work immediately and provide its recommendations "as expeditiously as possible."
Members of the commission have said that the recommendations for an overhaul of Congressional intelligence oversight, which the panel described as "dysfunctional," were among the panel's most important - and would be among the most difficult for Congress to endorse. The commission called for Congress to consider creation of a single joint committee on intelligence or, alternatively, for a single committee in each house of Congress that would have the power to appropriate budgetmoney.
Either proposal would almost certainly face strong opposition from lawmakers on the many Congressional committees that now review intelligence affairs and would have to cede power under a new oversight structure.
The membership of the working group includes Mr. Roberts, as well as Senators John W. Warner of Virginia, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's ranking Democrat. Senators Warner and Levin have already expressed wariness about any change that might strip the Defense Department - and the Armed Services Committee, as well - of control over intelligence matters related to the military.
Among the other members of the working group are the two Senate authors of the legislation that created the Sept. 11 commission: John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut.
"Ensuring that the Senate is as effective as possible when dealing with the threat of terrorism is a principal concern," Mr. Frist said, "and I welcome the working group's recommendations."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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