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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (56095)	7/25/2004 3:22:33 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794006

Kean reiterated the sense of foreboding: “An attack of even greater magnitude is possible and even probable,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of TIME.” TIME also reports President Bush has asked Chief of Staff Andrew Card to head a working group to look at how best to assess and implement 9/11 Commission Report recommendations. After Democratic challenger John Kerry announced he would appoint a new cabinet-level National Intelligence Director (NID) “when I’m President,” Bush aides hinted the President too may back the idea of a new intelligence czar. “Nothing ‘s off the table,” a senior White House official tells TIME. “And it’s definitely not off the table before the election.” A broad reorg of our current intelligence collection effort may be required...But it cannot help immediately. The current collection effort is massive, involving tens of thousands of folks. It is too big a ship to turn overnight or even within a few months. John Hamre, Deputy Secretary of Defense on the Clinton Administration, “If you have one guy for whom everyone works, then you’re going to start getting a homogenous view.” We do not need all these people to think alike. We need people who can think outside the box and outside the box cutters. We need to immediately reorient every staff level to pass up potentially key data without delay. This should have already been done. Our intel folks need an actionable slogan to live by. Something like, "When in doubt, pass it up." I would bet a piece of info picked up by a field agent goes through at least 40 other people and staffs before it gets to the Director CIA. Ditto for the FBI. Then it has to go through the layers of Homeland Security folks and staffs for assessment before they decide if you and I have a need to know. Adding another layer on top of all that may create a feel good feeling and provide a scapegoat when things go South, but it will never speed up collection or assessment which are our weak points now. uw