Free Republic

The intelligence-reform bill, which the House and Senate seem finally on the verge of passing, doesn't really reform much. Certainly it falls far short of the measures urged by the 9/11 commission, which set the legislative process in motion. The basic reason for this shortfall is simple: The Bush White House doesn't want reform... The compromise bill that's about to pass—and that President Bush, at last, has endorsed—establishes a national intelligence director but one with scant authority. The key passage in the bill making this so notes that this director will not "abrogate the statutory responsibilities" of the Department of...

The scattered agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community are about to get a new leader. The question is: Will that person have enough authority to make them follow?... Several officials voiced concern that having the president referee such disputes is likely to favor powerful players in the administration, particularly Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, whom Bush asked last week to serve a second term. Many of the provisions in the bill amount to "throwing the ball back in the president's camp," Turner said. "And I'm very worried because it appears this president won't buck Rumsfeld."...