MILNET Brief
  President Bush's Radio Address on Intelligence Community Changes, 8/29/2004

"In the three years since our country was attacked, America has remained on the offensive against terrorist enemies wherever they hide and plot. Part of that offensive has been to reorganize our government so that all our intelligence and law enforcement agencies cooperate effectively to expose and disrupt threats against America."

- President George W. Bush, weekly radio address, August 29, 2004.

The president presented in his radio address the 3 major elements of his recent Exectuive Order on the Intelligence Community, which was actually announced on August 15, 2004:

  1. I have ordered the Director of Central Intelligence to perform the functions of the National Intelligence Director within the constraints of existing law, until Congress establishes that position. I agree with the 9/11 Commission that America needs a single official to coordinate the foreign and domestic activities of the intelligence community with authority over personnel budgeting and policy. I am working with members of Congress to create this position. And while we act, the Director of Central Intelligence will play an expanded role.
  2. I have ordered the establishment of a national counterterrorism center. This new center builds on the capabilities of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, which I created more than a year ago. The center will become our government's central knowledge bank for information about known and suspected terrorists, and will help ensure effective joint action across the government so that our efforts against terrorists are unified in priority and purpose. Center personnel will also prepare the daily terrorism threat report that comes to me and to senior government officials.
  3. We're making sure that all agencies of our government share vital threat information. I have ordered the Director of Central Intelligence to ensure that we have common standards and clear accountability measures for intelligence sharing across the agencies of our government. I have established a new Information Systems Council to identify and break down any remaining barriers to the rapid sharing of threat information by America's intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies, and state and local governments. To continue to protect the freedoms and privacy of our citizens, I've established a civil liberties board to monitor information-sharing practices.
The White House website released the Executive Order, dated 8/27/2004

Sources:
  1. Transcript:  Bush on Intelligence, Fox News Online, 8/29/2004



-  Copyright ©, 2004, Michael G. Crawford for MILNET