The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee proposed sweeping changes Sunday that would dismantle the CIA and remove several of the United States’ largest intelligence agencies from the control of the Pentagon.
The restructuring outlined by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) is the most aggressive intelligence reform plan offered since the commission that investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, released its final report last month. The commission offered a blueprint for overhauling the nation’s spy services, but Roberts’ plan goes beyond it–as well as the positions taken thus far by President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry.
Roberts’ plan would break the CIA into three pieces, with each reporting to a separate branch of a new, overarching National Intelligence Service. That service would be led by a national intelligence director with “complete budget and personnel authority” over all components of the nation’s spy community, including major programs that for decades have been run by the Defense Department.
“We didn’t pay any attention to turf or agencies or boxes,” Roberts said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” describing legislation that he said already has the support of every Republican on his committee and would be shared with the White House for the first time Monday. “I’m trying to build consensus around something that is very different.”
By offering proposals that go beyond the changes that Bush so far has endorsed, Roberts is likely to put new pressure on a White House that has had to fend off criticism that it was not acting swiftly enough to fix systemic intelligence problems revealed by Sept. 11 and the failure to find evidence of banned weapons in Iraq.
In addition to going further than the president’s position, Roberts’ proposals exceed the changes envisioned by the Sept. 11 commission, which recommended creating a national intelligence director but did not suggest splitting up the CIA.
Kerry has endorsed all the recommendations of the Sept. 11 panel. Like Bush, he has not called for breaking up the CIA.
Roberts’ plan met immediate resistance from at least one Democrat on his committee, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who said during the same CBS program that he had not seen the bill but that “it’s a mistake to begin with, a partisan bill no matter what is in it.”
The bill also came under quick fire from the CIA.
“This proposal makes no sense at all,” a U.S. intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.
“Rather than eliminating stovepipes, it would create more of them,” the official said, using a term that refers to divisions among agencies that inhibit information sharing.
“And rather than bringing disciplines together, it smashes them apart,” the official said.
In an indication of how fiercely the agency might fight such a proposal, the official said of the Roberts plan: “It’s headed nowhere fast.”
The Roberts bill was drafted without input from Democrats. Congressional officials said the ranking Democrat on the panel, Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), was shown the bill for the first time Friday and has not had time to study it. Rockefeller was unavailable for comment.
Under Roberts’ plan, the CIA and the other 14 U.S. intelligence agencies would report to a single director. Four deputies would have authority over branches managing collection; analysis; research and technology; and military support.
The CIA would be split into three main components: the clandestine service that recruits spies overseas; the intelligence directorate that analyzes information; and the science directorate responsible for applying technology to the world of espionage. Each would be assigned to one of the new national branches.
The FBI would remain intact, although its intelligence and counterintelligence divisions would report to the national intelligence director. The Pentagon would relinquish control over several of the nation’s largest spy agencies, including the National Security Agency.
