From Bloomberg.com:
John McCain and Barack Obama agree that the next president needs to shake up U.S. spy operations. That’s where the similarity ends.
Whoever wins Nov. 4, the next president must overhaul a $47.5 billion intelligence effort, spread through 16 agencies, that’s still struggling seven years after failing to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks and six years after wrongly concluding that Iraq had WMD.
The latest challenge involves revamping a 2004 law that was supposed to repair flaws exposed by 9/11 and Iraq, national security analysts say. The law established a new office led by a director of national intelligence, or DNI, to oversee the CIA and other intelligence operations. So far, the law has added a layer of bureaucracy without giving the director – currently former NSA Director Mike McConnell – enough authority over agencies’ budgets, national security analysts say.
“The DNI is still very much a work in progress, and a lot people are thinking it’s not working,” says Mark Lowenthal, former CIA assistant director for analysis and production. The next president must get it right, because U.S. spies face an array of threats besides terrorists and hostile countries like Iran and North Korea, advisers from both campaigns say.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Commentary, President, White House | Tagged: 9/11, DNI, domestic intelligence, Iraq, John McCain, Michael McConnell, national intelligence, NSA, Presidential campaign, WMD | 1 Comment »
McCain and Obama differences on intelligence
From Bloomberg.com:
John McCain and Barack Obama agree that the next president needs to shake up U.S. spy operations. That’s where the similarity ends.
Whoever wins Nov. 4, the next president must overhaul a $47.5 billion intelligence effort, spread through 16 agencies, that’s still struggling seven years after failing to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks and six years after wrongly concluding that Iraq had WMD.
The latest challenge involves revamping a 2004 law that was supposed to repair flaws exposed by 9/11 and Iraq, national security analysts say. The law established a new office led by a director of national intelligence, or DNI, to oversee the CIA and other intelligence operations. So far, the law has added a layer of bureaucracy without giving the director – currently former NSA Director Mike McConnell – enough authority over agencies’ budgets, national security analysts say.
“The DNI is still very much a work in progress, and a lot people are thinking it’s not working,” says Mark Lowenthal, former CIA assistant director for analysis and production. The next president must get it right, because U.S. spies face an array of threats besides terrorists and hostile countries like Iran and North Korea, advisers from both campaigns say.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Commentary, President, White House | Tagged: 9/11, DNI, domestic intelligence, Iraq, John McCain, Michael McConnell, national intelligence, NSA, Presidential campaign, WMD | 1 Comment »