US May Set Up MI5-Style Spy Agency In Security Shake-up

America is contemplating a radical overall of the FBI and the creation of a domestic spying organisation modelled on Britain's MI5, according to US intelligence sources.

Tom Ridge, President George W Bush's director of homeland security, will hold talks in London next week focusing on the British experience of combating the IRA over more than three decades.

He is due to meet Eliza Manningham-Buller, director of MI5, and Sir Richard Dearlove, the MI6 chief, known as "C", as well as David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, and senior police officers at Scotland Yard. Officials from the Senate Intelligence Committee have already flown to London for talks with British security officials.

"We have just generically taken a look at and will be looking at your domestic intelligence operation, your MI5. The FBI is the counterpart here. There are some practical lessons learned," Mr Ridge said in an interview.

"We'll take a look at your anti-terrorism legislation - what you can and cannot do in relationship to people you suspect of terrorism. It's really a matter of a fairly systematic review of how you go about addressing the problem."

Following the intelligence slips that failed to raise the alarm before the September 11 attacks, deep misgivings have grown in Washington about the FBI and CIA's ability to prevent future terrorist outrages.

Senior Bush administration officials believe that the FBI's focus on law enforcement to the detriment of domestic intelligence-gathering has been a fatal flaw in America's defences against terrorism.

They also cite the FBI's poor relations with the CIA, which is responsible for foreign intelligence work, and the inability of the two organisations to co-ordinate their efforts so that domestic threats presented by foreign terrorist groups can be properly assessed.

Mr Ridge, who is facing a tough battle to get Congress to steer through a Bill that would create a massive new Homeland Security Department, would not be drawn on the details of what America could draw from British dealings with terrorists, but he said they would "take a look at how you deal with it from the intelligence-gathering side and intervention side".

Some US officials believe that the FBI's "police" culture is so entrenched that it cannot be transformed into an effective intelligence agency. One of the options Mr Ridge will be looking at is creating a new domestic spying agency on the lines of MI5.

Although the public focus in Anglo-US relations since September 11 has been on the strong bond between Tony Blair and Mr Bush, behind the scenes there has been growing intelligence co-operation and a recognition within Washington that Britain and Israel are world leaders in this field.

Mr Ridge is also expected to look at detailed aspects of British intelligence activities against the IRA, including the recruitment of informers and undercover agents, and the use of bugs and surveillance cameras.

Asked whether he thought America would be hit again, he replied: "I have always thought that, given the openness of this country, the diversity, the welcoming nature, there would be another attack."

It seems to me as an average citizen, uneducated in all of the intricacies of government, that there are too many "departments" and "agencies".
DEA, FBI, NSA, ATF, CIA, INS....and on and on...more than I know or could name!
How can they all coordinate or even cooperate with each other?
It would be good, in my opinion, if there was less of these departments and agencies and consolidate them all into two main groups.
One for foreign and one for domestic.

Just for discussion, what if there were just one department / agency that was strictly for foreign intelligence and security that concerned the U.S.
Then, there was one department / agency for domestic intelligence and security.

Name one "United States Department of Foreign Intelligence and National Security" and have agents and spies like a combination of the CIA - FBI, even combining these two departments into two divisions...intelligence gathering and law enforcement.
That department would be responsible for everything that concerns the U.S. going on around the world pertaining to our security and our interests in foreign countries.

Name the other "The United States Department of Homeland (or Domestic) Intelligence and Security".
This would encompass all of the departments and agencies that now seem redundant.
Eliminate all of the other alphabets and departments and agencies.
Combine in the domestic department the FBI, U.S. Marshals, DEA, ATF, INS, NSA, and all the other departments and agencies into two divisions:
One division for Nation-wide national law enforcement (with investigators, detectives, inspectors, etc) that enforces all the DEA, INS, ATF, FBI, U.S. Marshals, etc used to...
The other division for National or domestic intelligence gathering on say, foreign and domestic groups hostile within the U.S. internally, and also hostile foreigners trying to infiltrate our boarders by land or water.

If that were accomplished, it could save a lot of money and that money saved could go to purchase the best personnel (education, pay and benefits, etc.) training, equipment (weapons, armor, communications equipment, computers, high-tech gadgets for safety and intelligence)

Bottom line: there is, in my opinion too much redundancy and a too-bloated system, with far too many agencies and departments that don't cooperate, nor communicate. They are all only interested in "cya" (their own, that is).

I would be interested in what others think...

Our society is being polluted.

Someone should ask the question: Does the United States of America have the capacity to allow 6 BILLION people on this planet to emmigrate to the USA? When does this immigration crap stop?

The Feds and politicians better wake up. The illegals are already starting a swarthy attitude.

I'd just shoot 'em. It's cheaper and it make a point to the rest of the world. Waiting for flames from the bleeding hearts....

Here's the biggest change I suggest for the FBI - Put the accountants in the Treasury Dept. and put the Harvard Law graduates in the U.S. Attorneys office - we need people who are as sneaky and treacherous as our enemies are working in the FBI.

Frankly, I don't know that I WANT somebody with a clean background check in the FBI. Some of the best cops I know are good cops because they pulled all kinds of stunts when they were teenagers and know the tricks that punks pull.

If they want to hire former mobsters for the FBI, that's fine with me as long as they are pro-American mobsters. So far the FBI strikes me as being FAR too "white collar" in character to do the dirty work they are expected to do.

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