Counterterrorism Policies (DNI vs NCTC)In Conflict, Report Says

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5393-2005Mar27.html

Counterterrorism Policies (DNI vs NCTC)In Conflict, Report Says

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 28, 2005; Page A07


President Bush's executive order last August that established the new National Counterterrorism Center and the intelligence reform legislation that he signed in December have created conflicts in counterterrorism policy that need to be resolved, according to a report released last week by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

At issue is Bush's relationship to the new director of national intelligence (DNI), who is to be the president's chief adviser on intelligence, and the director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the organization established to integrate and analyze all counterterrorism intelligence and do strategic planning for counterterrorism operations.

In what the report calls a "possibly stark contradiction," the law specifies that the NCTC director is to report directly to Bush on "planning and progress of joint counterterrorism operations," and to the director of national intelligence on budgetary and other issues.

With such a "bifurcated structure," the report notes, "it is not implausible to foresee potential conflicts between the DNI and the director of NCTC concerning who is the president's primary adviser with respect to joint counterterrorism operational initiatives." CRS also questions whether the primacy of the DNI is "undermined by establishing a separate reporting channel to the president for certain counterterrorism operations."
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Another contradiction between the law and the executive order is over the status and rank of the DNI and the NCTC director. Under the law, both are to be presidential appointees who are confirmed by the Senate. Under the executive order, the NCTC director is selected by the president's chief intelligence adviser, now the DNI. The acting NCTC director is John O. Brennan, a former CIA senior official.<SNIP>