Congress pledges quick overhaul of intelligence

By Dan Eggen and Helen Dewar
The Washington Post

House Speaker House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

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The White House also signaled that President Bush may consider intelligence reforms before the November elections, contrary to earlier suggestions that such a move was unlikely.

The rapid responses underscored the deep impact of Thursday's 567-page "9/11 Commission Report," which chronicled a breathtaking array of failures to cope with the al-Qaida threat and protect Americans from terrorist attacks. The bipartisan report proposes a dramatic restructuring of the U.S. intelligence community and more effective control by Congress, and calls for tougher border controls and other steps to better guard against terrorism.

Commission leaders warned yesterday that the nation is at greater risk of a calamitous attack unless legislators and Bush act quickly to adopt recommendations by the panel, officially known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Chairman Thomas Kean, a Republican and former New Jersey governor, said "history will judge severely" a failure to move rapidly, and he criticized earlier statements from some GOP leaders who urged caution in adopting changes.

"To sit in the face of another possible attack on the American people, when your primary responsibility is to protect the American people, is not acceptable," Kean said. "We believe unless we implement these recommendations, we're more vulnerable to another terrorist attack. ... Time is not on our side."

	House Majority Whip Tom Delay, R-Texas.

Senate leaders announced an agreement reached Thursday night between Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., that directs key legislators to come up with proposals by Oct. 1 for restructuring U.S. intelligence agencies and reorganizing congressional oversight of the issue.

And despite earlier signals of caution from House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., he and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said in a joint statement late yesterday that they had directed appropriate House committees to "examine the commission's recommendations, begin hearings in August and report back to us with recommendation for specific legislation in September including specific proposals we will consider before Congress adjourns." They said they expect the committees to announce their schedule for hearings next week.

Hastert had said Thursday that the House did not intend to "rush through anything" and said he intended to ask committee chairmen "to hold hearings on these recommendations over the next several months, so we can act on them as quickly as possible."

	Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

White House officials said Bush may embrace recommendations for intelligence reform before the November election, but said they were not speeding up a separate review of the nation's intelligence system by another commission appointed by the president as a result of faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Bush took the 9/11 commission's report with him yesterday to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, officials said, where he plans to work on proposals before returning to Washington on Thursday, the day the Democratic National Convention draws to a close.

Stephen Hadley, deputy national-security adviser, is staying with him, and national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice plans to join him Monday to work on the recommendations, officials said. Bush also directed White House chief of staff Andrew Card to lead a task force to review the recommendations.

The moves would seem to ensure that the Sept. 11 attacks, along with intelligence failures that preceded them, will remain prominent issues in the last months of the presidential race. The subject poses a political dilemma for the Bush campaign, which has sought to emphasize the war on terrorism while dismissing Democratic allegations that he ignored al-Qaida before Sept. 11 and has increased the terrorism risk by invading Iraq.

As recently as Thursday, Rice urged caution in moving forward with reforms too quickly. Acting CIA director John McLaughlin and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge also criticized one of the panel's main recommendations for reform: creation of a National Intelligence Director in the Cabinet to oversee the government's 15 intelligence agencies. The commission also urges creating a National Counterterrorism Center, to coordinate intelligence gathering and operations both domestically and abroad.

Some of the proposals require only administrative oversight. They include reforms suggested for the FBI, CIA and aviation agencies. But the more overarching ideas, such as establishment of a national intelligence director and a National Counterterrorism Center, need congressional legislation. Rice said Bush supports reform of the intelligence community, but she stopped short of endorsing an intelligence chief.

John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, on Thursday urged rapid action on the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations. Kerry also said that, if reforms are not enacted and he is elected president, he would convene a security summit to push for changes.

The unusually pointed comments yesterday from Kean and his vice chairman, former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, represent the opening salvo in an aggressive campaign by the 10-member commission to lobby for its recommendations. Commission members plan to fan out nationwide in speaking engagements.

Kean said the group is working to enlist relatives of Sept. 11 victims to monitor and lobby legislators district by district. The panel, whose budget and existence expire by law next month, also is exploring ways to keep itself going independently to keep tabs on the progress, Kean said.

The effort is aimed at increasing the pressure on Congress and the administration to respond more directly to the commission's calls for reform, according to panel officials. "The status quo always has an army," Kean said. "To besiege that castle is very, very difficult, but that's what we've decided to do."

The decisions by House and Senate GOP leaders to hold hearings next month came after Sens. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., endorsed legislation to enact the commission's major recommendations. Democratic leaders also had signaled that they were prepared to seize on the issue if Republican leaders did not.

Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the committee's chairwoman, said hearings will begin the first week in August — a departure from the normal practice of shutting down all operations during Congress' recess.

Congress returns Sept. 7 and is scheduled to wrap up work by early October. Collins and Lieberman said the legislation could be dealt with in October or in a post-election "lame duck" session at the end of the year.

Background on what's needed to enact the changes was provided by The Baltimore Sun.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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