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

To: KLP who wrote (89508)	12/7/2004 2:51:18 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793957

Intelligence bill expected to pass Stalemate ends with agreement to follow some of the 9/11 commission's recommendations By PHILIP SHENON New York Times Dec. 6, 2004, 11:01PM chron.com WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders reached a final agreement Monday allowing passage of a bill to overhaul the nation's intelligence community and enact the major recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission, including creation of the job of national intelligence director to force the CIA and other government spy agencies to share intelligence about national security threats. The agreement ended a weekslong stalemate over the bill, which had been endorsed by President Bush and the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks but opposed by a group of Republican lawmakers close to the Pentagon who insisted that the bill would dangerously dilute the authority of the Defense Department over intelligence needed on the battlefield. The Republicans, led by Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said they were satisfied by a last-minute revision of the bill to include a sentence requiring that the new national intelligence director operate under guidelines that do not "abrogate the statutory responsibilities" of the Defense Department. Congressional officials said final House and Senate votes probably would occur today or Wednesday, allowing Bush to sign the bill into law this week, setting in motion the largest overhaul of the nation's system for gathering and sharing intelligence since the creation of the CIA in 1947. The bill also would create a National Counterterrorism Center to coordinate terrorism intelligence from throughout the government, as well as establish an independent civil liberties board to review the government's privacy policies. Civil liberties advocates have opposed the overall bill, saying that it grants broad new surveillance and anti-immigration powers to law enforcement agencies that endanger constitutional protections. The bill's supporters described the last-minute revisions, which were worked out with the White House during weekend negotiations directly overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff, as minor. They said they would not undermine the powers of the national intelligence director, who is described in the bill as the president's chief intelligence adviser and who would take authority away from both the CIA and the Pentagon. "I think we need intelligence reform," Hunter said Monday with Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who also announced his endorsement of the revised bill. "My obligation is to the defense sector in this bill, the military aspect of this bill, and the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States," said Hunter, who was able to block a final House vote on the bill last month. The bill's chief Senate authors, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said the bill "creates a more coordinated intelligence community with one person in charge, to help make Americans safer and better serve the president, the military, Congress and other agencies that rely on national intelligence." Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, said revisions made to the bill were a face-saving measure for Hunter. "It gets his vote, but it doesn't change what was basically the agreement two weeks ago," Shays said.