Posted on 03/12/2004 12:28:28 PM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
With the end of the Cold War, some in the Clinton White House and the Democrat-controlled Congress saw the opportunity in the 1990s to sharply curtail spending on one of their least favorite government organizations: the Central Intelligence Agency.
Especially in the early Clinton years, the cuts were deep, far- reaching and devastating to the ability of the CIA to keep America safe.
Overseas intelligence operations were canceled and about 40 percent of those recruited to spy for America's interests were let go. Officers in the clandestine service - the core of our overseas intelligence operations - declined by about 25 percent. Approximately one-third of overseas offices watching America's enemies were shut down. Little effort was made to upgrade desperately needed language and regional expertise to confront emerging threats in the Middle East.
In short, the United States lost its eyes and ears in many parts of the world.
Then-CIA director John Deutch issued a directive in 1995 that significantly limited the recruitment of spies. Operatives were discouraged from recruiting those whose backgrounds included unsavory aspects such as human rights violations. Such individuals are, by their very nature, the types who have close-in access to the plans and intentions of international terrorist movements, criminal enterprises and dictatorial regimes such as that of Saddam Hussein. U.S. intelligence capabilities atrophied seriously.
Where was the junior senator from Massachusetts? Serving as a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 1993 to 2000, John Kerry had direct oversight for every facet of the U.S. intelligence community. Did he fight the cuts in intelligence spending or the restraints on U.S. intelligence operatives?
Far from it. In fact, he was leading the way to make deep and devastating cuts.
Kerry's antipathy to the U.S. intelligence community dates back to his first unsuccessful run for Congress in 1970, when Kerry promised to ``almost eliminate CIA activity'' if elected. Nearly 20 years later, in 1997, Kerry questioned his colleagues in the Congress, ``Now that [Cold War] struggle is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow?'' During his 19 years in the Congress, John Kerry proposed or supported cuts in intelligence spending reaching into the billions.
Tragically, while Kerry was leading efforts in Congress to dismantle the nation's intelligence capabilities, the world was getting more dangerous. In 1993, during his first year on the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, Osama bin Laden directed al- Qaida's first successful terrorist strike on U.S. soil: blowing up a car bomb in the basement garage of the World Trade Center, killing six and wounding 1,000. In 1996, another likely al- Qaida attack on U.S. Air Force's Khobar Towers barracks in Dahran, Saudi Arabia, killed 19 Americans and wounded 515 Americans and Saudis. In 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were attacked by al-Qaida suicide bombers, killing 234 people and wounding more than 5,000. In 2000, during the final year of Sen. Kerry's tenure as a congressional overseer of U.S. intelligence programs, al-Qaida attacked and nearly sank the USS Cole, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39.
Kerry, like many other Democrats, now complains that U.S. intelligence has been inadequate to meet the challenges of the war on terrorism and Iraq. The Bush administration did indeed inherit a demoralized and downsized intelligence community, but if John Kerry wants to criticize those shortcomings, he should first account for his own record.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has made the most sweeping reforms in intelligence in decades. Budgets are up, recruitment of key capabilities is up, morale is up and U.S. intelligence operatives are leading in new and innovative ways to try to keep America safe from terrorism.
It would be irresponsible to guarantee that the nation will ever be completely safe. But because of President Bush's leadership, we are certainly safer as a result of his support for a revitalized, well-funded and more effective U.S. intelligence community. And, as the record shows, all without the support of the junior senator from Massachusetts.
C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, chairs the House Appropriations Committee. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, chairs the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
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