Posted on 02/10/2004 6:38:18 AM PST by Jeff Gannon
WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Democrats are hoping to make the controversy over intelligence failures a political liability for President Bush. But the appointment of a presidential commission to investigate intelligence failures may prove troublesome to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the likely Democratic nominee, when the panel begins its work.
Responding to a question from Talon News, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan suggested that the commission's investigation would be looking backward as well as forward.
"If you're doing a broad assessment of your intelligence capabilities, you want to make sure you look at where we've been and where we're headed," McClellan said.
The president's executive order that formed the commission stated that its purpose would be to "Assess whether the intelligence community is sufficiently authorized, organized, equipped, trained, and resourced." This poses a particularly difficult situation for the Democratic front-runner. His votes in the Senate have already begun to emerge.
As recently as 1997, Kerry questioned the size of the intelligence community.
"Now that [the Cold War] struggle is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow," Kerry said.
In 1995, the Massachusetts Senator proposed a bill that would gut $1.5 billion from the overall intelligence budget by reducing funding $300 million for five years, beginning in 1996. No co-sponsors signed onto the bill and it never made it to the Senate floor for a vote.
The previous year, Kerry proposed a bill to slash $1 billion from the budgets of the National Foreign Intelligence Program and from Tactical Intelligence, and freezing their budgets. That bill was rejected.
The National Foreign Intelligence Program encompasses all programs, projects, and activities of the intelligence community. A major component of the program is the FBI's Nationwide Counter Terrorism Programs. The responsibilities of the FBI's field offices include foreign counterintelligence and counter terrorism within the United States.
The mission for special agents working in these programs is to detect and thwart the intelligence collection activities of foreign powers and their agents, and take aggressive measures to reduce the vulnerabilities of the United States to terrorism.
Tactical Intelligence provides critical time-sensitive information on foreign entities in support of operating forces on the ground as well as training personnel for intelligence duties.
In 1993, Kerry proposed $45 billion in science, intelligence, and defense spending cuts.
Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
As recently as 1997, Kerry questioned the size of the intelligence community.
"Now that [the Cold War] struggle is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow," Kerry said.
In 1995, the Massachusetts Senator proposed a bill that would gut $1.5 billion from the overall intelligence budget by reducing funding $300 million for five years, beginning in 1996. No co-sponsors signed onto the bill and it never made it to the Senate floor for a vote.
The previous year, Kerry proposed a bill to slash $1 billion from the budgets of the National Foreign Intelligence Program and from Tactical Intelligence, and freezing their budgets. That bill was rejected.
Not that this will matter to the voters... I mean, Kerry keeps repeating about "Bush's as a 'failure'" so what does Kerry's past have to do with anything? < /sarcasm>
Yes, and all the pedophile priests served in the Church - maybe someone should ask him how being there makes him honorable.
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