Intel reform law just the beginning

Boston Herald ^ | Dec 13, 2004

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

It's not words on paper which will better protect this nation from a terrorist attack.

We're not at all convinced that a culture of collaboration can be legislated. Or that a new counterterrorism center solves the bottom line lesson of the missing WMD in Iraq - threat assessments are only as reliable as the intelligence being analyzed.

Indeed, we will be no safer if the first appointee to the new post of National Intelligence director simply has access to the same junk intel which led former CIA Director George Tenet to declare the case for war in Iraq a ``slam dunk.''

We will be no safer if human intelligence assets aren't developed in Iran, North Korea and Syria, among other trouble spots.

Or if, for lack of translators, critical information gathers dust on a shelf.

We will be no safer if the cooperation demanded of 15 intelligence agencies is accepted much as a shotgun marriage - without enthusiasm or a commitment to success.

We will certainly be no safer if Congress continues to stonewall reforming its own committee structure so that the homeland security effort has adequate and focused oversight.

``The Department of Homeland Security is still responsible to everyone - which makes it accountable to no one,'' former House Speaker Tom Foley and retired Sen. Warren Rudman said in a report released Friday. The pair pointed out that some 79 committees and subcommittees have jurisdiction over the department, meaning at least 412 of the 435 House members and all 100 senators are involved.

The intelligence reform bill gives the federal government many of the tools it needs to fight an elusive and ruthless enemy. How those tools are used is what matters now.

[inquest]

Add to that list: We will be no safer if we keep assuming that only the federal government can save us.

[Redbob]

Intel reform?

Who's next, AMD?