REFORMED INTELLIGENCE

Senate leaders Republican Bill Frist and Democrat Tom Daschle this summer gave the Senate’s Governmental Affairs Committee the major job of turning the conclusions of the 9-11 Commission report on intelligence into legislation that that could be supported by both parties and passed this fall. The committee accomplished much of that this week – not a comprehensive report, but a serious and significant reform that, three years after the attacks, will begin to transform the intelligence community.

Led by Chairman Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Governmental Affairs offers legislation that will create the position of a national intelligence director. This proposal has received broad support because, as the 9-11 Commission revealed, the disparate agencies did not share information well and so often could not expand each other’s understanding of possible threats or correct misimpressions that one of the 15 agencies had. A national director would strengthen the integration of data from all agencies and provide a more complete picture of potential threats.

The Senate committee improved the commission’s work by making the intelligence director the head of an independent agency within the executive branch – as opposed to the commission’s recommendation to make it part of the executive office of the president. This gives the director more independence, a necessary feature buttressed by the bill’s creation of an ombudsman in the National Intelligence Authority to watch for a lack of objective analysis within the agency.

A key to ensuring that the agencies share is to make their budgets dependent on it. The committee properly gave the director budget authority over a dozen of the agencies – those that serve more than one federal department – while leaving alone tactical military intelligence agencies, which would remain under the Department of Defense.

The legislation further creates a National Counterterrorism Center to supercede the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, set up by the administration last year but without the full perspective of the 9-11 Commission’s information. The center would carry out both strategic planning to end the sources of terrorism and tactical planning to stop terrorist activities once they have begun.

Another important feature of the bill is its creation of a Civil Liberties Board, which would provide advice as policies were being written and oversee those policies once they were in place. The board’s role is not to overlap the duties of civil liberties offices within agencies but to focus on government-wide and interagency issues. Given the seriousness of the steps taken by the federal government since 9-11, its inclusion is welcome.

There is more intelligence reform to come – Governmental Affairs addressed executive branch reforms; legislative work, such as committee oversight, is still being considered. But in the middle of a tight presidential race, within a closely divided Senate, Sens. Collins and Lieberman delivered a bipartisan package of substantial intelligence reforms that should be supported by their colleagues.