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The CIA is the best place to work in the United States. No federal agency has a smarter, more dedicated or harder-working set of individuals than the CIA's women and men. I had intended to work at the CIA for the duration of my career, and I left it with deep regret and a great sense of personal loss. I was neither forced out nor pressed to resign. Resigning was my decision alone. I cannot state these facts more clearly, and I fiercely deny the accusations that I am a disgruntled former employee. I am, however, a disgruntled American —...

Congress's chief opponent of legislation to revamp the intelligence community says he remains unmoved, leaving the White House scrambling this weekend for a solution to the impasse that has frustrated the bill's backers and raised questions about President Bush's clout among Republican lawmakers. For Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the House Armed Services Committee chairman at the center of the logjam, the role is a familiar one. During 24 years in Congress, he has bucked Democratic as well as Republican presidents when he felt they provided too little money, equipment and weaponry for U.S. troops. When it comes to safeguarding satellite intelligence...

It could happen any day now: A U.S. military unit heads into an urban combat zone in Iraq's Sunni Triangle. Its members believe they know where Abu Musab Zarqawi is hiding. Their mission is to capture or kill the most murderous terrorist this side of Osama bin Laden. Their chance of succeeding--and getting back alive--will be enhanced by accurate and timely intelligence fed to them from overhead satellites. Question: Who should control those satellites?

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- 911 Families for a Secure America, representing more than 300 families whose relatives were victims of the 911 terrorists attacks, held a press conference today at the Capitol to set the record straight on the 911 bill and what they call "the true obstructionist". The Families identified Sen. Joe Lieberman as the primary obstacle to passage of the 911 Bill due to his insistence that no immigration safeguards be included in the proposed legislation. 911 Families in conjunction with United to Secure America launched a national ad campaign today praising 911 conferees who have...

It could happen any day now: A U.S. military unit heads into an urban combat zone in Iraq's Sunni Triangle. Its members believe they know where Abu Musab Zarqawi is hiding. Their mission is to capture or kill the most murderous terrorist this side of Osama bin Laden. Their chance of succeeding--and getting back alive--will be enhanced by accurate and timely intelligence fed to them from overhead satellites. Question: Who should control those satellites? Should it be the military commanders of the troops heading into combat? Or should it be a civilian bureaucrat--removed from the military chain of command--sitting in...

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) told lawmakers Friday he is working as hard as possible to strike a deal on legislation to implement the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations on how to make the country safer from terrorist attack. Bush told House and Senate members at the White House that "he's working on it as hard as he can," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who briefed reporters after the session. "We've talked to other people who are working on it, progress is being made, and we hope that it can be finished up (next) week." The president's task...

Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004 12:31 a.m. EST 9/11 Families Back Sensenbrenner in Intel Fight Leaders of a group representing more than 300 family members of 9/11 victims urged Congress on Tuesday to scrap the intelligence reform bill because it doesn't include key provisions to secure the nation's borders against terrorist infiltration - the same objection raised by one of the bill's leading opponents, Wisconsin Sen. James Sensenbrenner. "No bill should pass the Senate, the House, anywhere, unless it contains immigration reform," said Joan Molinaro, the mother of a New York City firefighter killed on September 11 and a member of...

Found an interesting article concerning our driver's license becoming a National ID that is in the Intelligence Reform bill that will decided by the 108th Congress in a special session starting December 6. One of the mandates are states will be required to participate in the Driver License Agreement (DLA) as proposed by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), a private corporation which is composed of executives from law enforcement, motor vehicle administrators. The article is located at Free Congress Org. Driver's licenses are a state matter which should not be dictated by the Federal Gov't. States with...

At the heart of a dispute over legislative intelligence reform are confidential meetings between the defense secretary and the CIA director during which they decided where to point spy satellites.     Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former CIA director George Tenet, and their staffs, talked frequently about where to position satellites that relay overhead images and overheard conversations during the war on terror. [snip] The procedure for "tasking intelligence assets," as the discussion is called, is spelled out in the 1947 National Security Act. Amended numerous times since then, the act details the working relationship between the CIA director...

The new national counterterrorism center established by President Bush under an executive order is to begin operations in early December, at about the same time that Congress may be debating whether to approve a law that would create a different version of the same agency. The center would be the "primary organization in the United States government for analyzing and integrating" all intelligence "pertaining to terrorism and counterterrorism, excepting purely domestic counterterrorism information." The center's director is to supervise correlation of the terrorism intelligence and produce reports to be sent to the president and other senior officials. It would operate...

Defying President Bush, Reps. Duncan Hunter and James Sensenbrenner - who led opposition dooming legislation based on the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations - said they won't change their minds without Senate concessions. "It'll be tougher now because the well got even more poisoned by the senators and their supporters thoroughly criticizing Duncan Hunter and myself by name on the talking head shows yesterday," Sensenbrenner told The Associated Press on Monday. The two men turned back a last-second deal Saturday to pass stalled legislation to create a new national intelligence director and national counterterrorism center. The overhaul was supposed to help...

DOBBS: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner led the fight to include recommendations of the September 11 Commission to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses. Congressman Sensenbrenner and House Intelligence Committee chairman Pete Hoekstra will be here to talk about why the negotiations failed and why Congress is refusing to protect the American people. Snip~ President Bush says he'll push ahead with plans to legalize millions of illegal aliens. Could it be President Fox and President Bush consider our southern border an inconvenience? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One out of every ten Mexicans lives in the United States. Snip~ Tonight, anger...

Senators have made it much harder to reach a new agreement on the intelligence overhaul bill after their harsh comments during the weekend about the Republicans who blocked the measure, one key House negotiator said yesterday. "An already poisoned well got poisoned even more badly," said Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican and House Judiciary Committee chairman. He and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter think that the compromise bill that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert wanted to bring to a vote on Saturday went too far in constricting the power of the military to use real-time intelligence...

<p>DALLAS (AP) — President Bush on Monday accused John Kerry of having proposed "deeply irresponsible" cuts in intelligence spending just two years after the first attack on the World Trade Center, part of a re-election effort to depict his Democratic rival as weak on national security and the war against terrorism.</p>

DALLAS (AP) -- President Bush on Monday accused John Kerry of having proposed "deeply irresponsible" cuts in intelligence spending just two years after the first attack on the World Trade Center, part of a re-election effort to depict his Democratic rival as weak on national security and the war against terrorism. Bush, during a fund-raiser in Dallas, called attention to a 1995 bill that Kerry sponsored to trim intelligence spending by $1.5 billion over five years. The cut was part of what Kerry called a "budget-buster bill" to strip $90 billion from the budget and end 40 programs that he...