September 16, 2004


Mr. Michael Crawford
2334 Coloma Rd.
Placerville, California  95667

Dear Mr. Crawford:

	Thank you for writing to me about the Director of 
National Intelligence.  I appreciate hearing from you and 
I welcome the opportunity to respond.

	I believe that the current structure of the 
intelligence community is inadequate to meet the 
challenges of the War on Terror: the community is 
fragmented, there is a lack of coordination between 
agencies, and there is no effective leadership.  Our 
country needs coordination among the myriad agencies 
that gather intelligence.

	Creation of a Director of National Intelligence was 
the lead recommendation of the Joint Congressional 
Inquiry in the September 11 attacks, and to create a more 
efficient and effective intelligence community, I have 
introduced S.190, the Intelligence Community 
Leadership Act of 2003.  This legislation will create the 
position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to 
manage the intelligence community and tasks this 
position with the responsibility to:

1.	set collection priorities for the intelligence 
community, ensuring that collection is directed 
against the targets which most threaten our country 
and our allies;  

2.	ensure that the elements of the intelligence 
community cooperate and share information 
effectively; 

3.	coordinate intelligence community distribution of 
intelligence products to decision makers who need 
the information to make critical national security 
choices; and 

4.	allocate intelligence community resources to 
ensure that money and people are properly 
distributed and used.  I believe that this legislation 
will help unify our disjointed intelligence 
community.  With greater coordination and 
cooperation, I believe we can better meet the threat 
of terrorism and ensure safety and security at home 
and abroad.

	Again, thank you for writing.  If you should have 
any more comments, please feel free to contact my office 
in Washington, D.C. at (202)224-3841.	
			
			Sincerely yours,

			Dianne Feinstein
			United States Senator

http://feinstein.senate.gov

Further information about my position on issues of concern to California and 
the Nation are available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov.  You can also 
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http://feinstein.senate.gov/issue.html.