2 issues stalling intelligence bill

WASHINGTON – Two issues have House Republicans tied in a knot on the intelligence bill President Bush says he wants: military control of spy satellites and provisions that, some lawmakers say, let terrorists shield themselves with claims of political asylum.

Negotiators are working down to the wire in hopes of getting an agreement so the GOP-controlled House can vote Monday on legislation to put the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission’s recommendations into law. If the House goes ahead, the Senate would act Tuesday, sending Bush legislation that would set up a national intelligence director and a national counterterrorism center

Still standing in the way of House action, however, are Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who are the main opponents despite White House pleas for their support.

Bush called House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., on Thursday to tell them he wants an intelligence bill completed.

Meanwhile, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that his one objection to the compromise legislation has been resolved. Myers asked in an Oct. 21 letter that any final compromise keep money for combat support agencies flowing through the Defense Department instead of going through the proposed national intelligence director.

“The issue that I specifically addressed in a letter to Chairman Hunter has been accommodated, I’m told, in the bill,” Myers said Thursday, although he refused to endorse or condemn the compromise.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the lead Senate negotiators, said they were not prepared to reopen negotiations. Bush was expected to send Congress a letter Friday outlining what he wants done with the bill. Collins and Lieberman said they expected the letter to endorse their compromise.

The bill has not received noticeable support from the Pentagon, which now controls much of the money that would go to the national intelligence director. Crucial to winning Hunter’s support is ensuring the Defense Department would retain direct control over the agencies that operate the nation’s spy satellites and analyze the information they pick up.

Under the legislation, the intelligence director would oversee the CIA as well as Pentagon-controlled agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates spy satellites, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes satellite pictures.

Hunter says battlefield commanders need direct access to those satellites and should not have to waste time by asking the intelligence director’s permission to use the equipment.

“We need to have here a strong chain of command between the combat support agencies – those are the satellite agencies and those who do the signal intelligence and the pictures – and the warfighters on the ground in the Department of Defense,” he told The Associated Press last week.

“In my judgment this bill … would play into rendering that area confused to the detriment of our Americans in combat, so I will not support it,” he said.

Collins said Thursday there was nothing in the bill that would hinder military operations.

“The bill leaves tactical and joint military intelligence under the exclusive control of the Pentagon. The language could not be clearer on that point,” Collins said.

Sensenbrenner said he would have signed onto the compromise last week if the Senate had agreed to close what he called loopholes in asylum laws that he said had helped some terrorists try to get into the country.

He pointed to Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani who was convicted and executed for killing two people outside the CIA’s headquarters in 1993.