06/21/02
By Thomas Frank
Newsday
Washington - Several lawmakers raised pointed concerns yesterday that
the proposed new department of homeland security would not solve intelligence
failures.
Senators and House members honed in on a part of President George W.
Bush's proposal that would bar the new department from getting "raw" intelligence,
such as recordings or transcripts of conversations, without presidential
approval.
The department would routinely receive reports from intelligence agencies
such as the CIA and the FBI, which it would analyze independently and in
conjunction with other reports about vulnerabilities. Those analyses would
lead the department to recommend protective measures to be taken by the
government and private sector.
But yesterday, in the first hearings featuring Homeland Security Director
Tom Ridge, several lawmakers said that without the raw intelligence, the
new department could not conduct a thorough analysis to detect patterns
from varied reports.
"The new agency isn't going to connect the dots. That would be done
by an analysis inside the CIA and the FBI," said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).
"The trouble is, they don't connect the dots, as we've recently seen."
Levin told Ridge, "There's no accountability here. If the FBI doesn't
share the information with you, you don't know about it."
At a hearing in the House later yesterday, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.)
said the proposal's failure to force the FBI and CIA to cooperate with
the new department is "a glaring flaw."
Ridge told Levin that the department's "primary function" would be to
"integrate" intelligence reports from other agencies.
But after persistent questioning by Levin, Ridge conceded, "Perhaps
we need to work on the language" of the bill proposed by Bush.
As lawmakers began their review of Bush's proposal to create a department
that would protect U.S. borders and coordinate efforts to prevent and recover
from terrorist attacks, many expressed concerns about local issues.
Lawmakers from coastal states such as Massachusetts, Maine and Alaska
protested moving the Coast Guard into the new department, saying it would
reduce that agency's work in boating safety and fisheries protection.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who represents an "immigrant-rich district"
north of Chicago, wondered whether transferring the Immigration and Naturalization
Service to the department would help people who are "already suffering
under an inefficient and insensitive agency."
Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney complained to the leaders of the
House and Senate intelligence committees about a news leak concerning messages
intercepted on Sept. 10 by the National Security Agency. News organizations
reported yesterday that the NSA had intercepted Arabic conversations in
which someone said, "Tomorrow is zero hour" and "The match begins tomorrow."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush was "deeply concerned
about these leaks," saying they could "endanger America's ability to gather
intelligence information."
Senate intelligence committee chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.), after speaking
to Cheney, who Graham said "was not a happy man," asked the attorney general
to investigate the leak.
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