Government panel eyes possible "domestic CIA" agency [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: "Chuck Mauthe" <cmauthe () transcard com>
To: "'Politech'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Panel Eyes Homeland Spy Service
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 08:59:32 -0400
Message-ID: <014501c3931c$2db7e660$50a3a8c0 () transcard com>

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/14/attack/printable577953.shtml

Panel Eyes Homeland Spy Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2003


A former CIA director and a former deputy national security adviser on
Tuesday advocated major changes to the U.S. intelligence establishment in
testimony before the independent commission studying the terror attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001.

John M. Deutch, CIA director from 1995-1996, and James B. Steinberg, deputy
national security adviser in the Clinton administration, endorsed two
structural reforms: appointing a director of national intelligence separate
from the CIA, and creating a domestic security service modeled after
Britain's MI5.

"Although some progress has been made," Deutch said in written remarks to
the commission, "I doubt that it will be possible to obtain the intelligence
capability this country and its citizens deserve without a dramatic
realignment that creates an executive authority that places national
security first."

In an interview on the eve of his testimony, Steinberg said U.S.
counterterror efforts remain hampered by decades-old walls separating by law
the work of the FBI and CIA. The FBI operates domestically and traditionally
focuses on catching law-breakers; the CIA works abroad and focuses on
learning secrets.

"The beauty of the MI5 model is it breaks down both those walls," said
Steinberg, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which
is reviewing intelligence failures as part of its probe of Sept. 11, was
also hearing Tuesday from a second former national intelligence director who
cautions against dramatic realignment.

"No one would question that management can always be improved, but major
organizational change is not the salvation," James Schlesinger, director of
central intelligence in 1973, said in his prepared testimony.

He added, "I would submit that the real challenge lies in recruiting,
fostering, and motivating people with insight — and, when necessary, bring
about long-term change in the ethos of intelligence organizations."

...
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