Panel to Warn Bush of Intelligence-Sharing Problems

[Up2Late]

Sun Mar 27, 2005 06:09 PM ET

By Adam Entous

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - A commission reviewing U.S. intelligence operations will warn this week that major obstacles remain to intelligence sharing among spy agencies, despite calls for change after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, people who have seen a draft report said on Sunday.

The nine-member bipartisan commission, created by President Bush and headed by appeals court judge Laurence Silberman and former Virginia governor and senator Charles Robb, is expected to issue its report on Thursday.

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The report will also include recommendations aimed at bolstering U.S. intelligence operations after a series of high-profile failures, from missed opportunities to thwart al Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks to claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. None has been found.

A commission spokesman declined to discuss the contents of the report, portions of which have been circulating among the U.S. intelligence agencies.

(more at link)

<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=8008443&src=rss/politicsNews>

[Something of Reason]

1. Army Intel

Three years ago I transfered from Infantry to Intel in the Army. Learn some amazing things. The agencies mostly hate each other...maybe hate is to strong a word, but it borders on it. Many of the agencies compete with each other for funding and their share of the "pie." If NGA loses a piece of its action to DIA then NGA doesn't get as much money next year.

Its sad that so many people at the highest level of these agencies have forgotten what we're supposed to be doing...keeping the country safe and keeping the troops alive.

[Moderator]

2. kick to combine

[emad]

3. Bush to accept advice on intelligence

IHT
By David E. Sanger and David Johnston The New York Times
Thursday, March 31, 2005
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush was to announce Thursday that the administration will accept many of the recommendations of a commission examining American intelligence failures in detecting illicit weapons abroad. It is a step that may roil U.S. intelligence agencies just as they are reorganizing under new legislation, according to senior White House officials.
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Bush received a preliminary briefing on the report from his staff on Tuesday. On Thursday he is expected to meet with the two chairmen of the commission, Judge Laurence Silberman of the federal Court of Appeals and Charles Robb, a former senator and governor of Virginia.
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Among the recommendations, in what is said to be a sweeping critique of the government's performance, is the creation of a new interagency center on proliferation to assess efforts by other countries, terror groups and traffickers - like the nuclear black market set up by the Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan - to assemble the components of nuclear arsenals.
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Currently, several agencies examine parts of such programs, at times in isolation from one another. In the case of Iraq and now in the assessments of the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Energy Department and the State Department's intelligence agency often disagree.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/30/news/wmd.html