Moves that matter: Pre-emptive strike by the Pentagon surprises many in Congress

U.S. News ^ | 08/12/2002 | Linda Robinson

[Pokey78]

Sen. Bob Graham was decidedly upset. It was June 22, another bad news day. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs, along with its House counterpart, had just been raked over the coals by Vice President Cheney for allegedly leaking secret intercepts about the September 11 attacks. Now there was more bad news. The administration had promised not to propose any major intelligence reforms until the two congressional committees had finished their joint 9/11 inquiry. Yet the day before, June 21, the Pentagon quietly sent up a request to create a powerful new under secretary of defense for intelligence. The new position–which one official calls a "major intelligence reform"–was then inserted into a Senate defense bill and was headed for the full Congress's approval.

The Pentagon's gambit has been such a brilliant stealth attack that many members of Congress aren't even aware it is happening, let alone what it means. No hearings have been held, and Pentagon officials portray it merely as an internal managerial matter with few broader implications. But intelligence officials and experts say that could not be further from the truth. The new under secretary position is a bureaucratic coup that accomplishes many Pentagon goals in one fell swoop.

The Pentagon's move pre-empts proposals that the intelligence committees–including the one Graham, a Florida Democrat, chairs– are expected to make at the conclusion of their inquiry. And by consolidating all the Pentagon's intelligence agencies under one high-level official, it virtually nullifies another radical reform pro- posal. That came from a presidential panel led by retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, which in March recommended that three key Pentagon intelligence entities–the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency–be removed from the Department of Defense and placed under the control of the director of central intelligence (DCI).

The latest gambit illustrates the growing influence of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had publicly criticized the Scowcroft plan. Worth noting: Scowcroft has long been a friend and adviser to the president's father, George H. W. Bush. More important, the new position increases the Pentagon's clout in intelligence matters. "He is creating another DCI for all practical purposes," says a senior intelligence official. That goes in the opposite direction from what many commissions and studies have recommended–and, indeed, where Congress was likely to go. For years, experts have proposed ways to give the DCI more, not less, control over the 13 disparate pieces of the intelligence apparatus, 85 percent of whose assets reside in the Defense Department. Since the September 11 attacks there is a new sense of urgency that the United States must get the intelligence structure right for fighting terrorism.

Some former intelligence officials think the military overemphasizes tactical priorities. "You can see this now in that all national resources are focused on an 8,000-troop operation in Afghanistan," says one. But retired Lt. Gen. William Odom, a former director of the National Security Agency, argues that the Pentagon's intelligence needs are greater today than ever, given precision weapons' dependence on targeting data.

Tenet's two hats. By law, the official who is supposed to balance these "war-fighting" demands with broader national intelligence requirements is the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, who wears a second hat as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. A number of officials say that Tenet has sufficient statutory authority to outweigh the Pentagon but chooses not to. "Part of the problem is the current DCI doesn't use the authority he has," says one. "He is mostly just interested in running the CIA and does not want to fight DOD."

This imbalance will only grow if the lead candidate for the under secretary slot is named. Richard Haver, currently Rumsfeld's special assistant for intelligence, has a long résumé of intelligence jobs and is as gung-ho as his boss. "He has enthusiastic supporters and detractors," says a retired intelligence official. And he has another ace in the hole: When Cheney ran the Pentagon, he made Haver his very first assistant secretary of defense for intelligence.

[Check6]

Great idea. No doubt we need a serious second opinion intelligence capability and I think I'd like to have it from people in uniform. Since they are the ones who end up getting shot at when sent to straighten out our messes, they have a direct interest in the quality of their work.