FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 23, 2004
CONTACT: Sarah Little (202) 224-4774

Senator Roberts Calls for Real Intelligence Reform with 9/11 National Security Protection Act

“Our Bill is real reform and it’s the right thing to do,” Senator Roberts said. “We cannot allow turf battles to define this debate. No one agency, no matter how distinguished its history, it more important than U.S. National Security.”

“Our Bill proposes a path to implement the important ideas recommended by the 9/11 Commission,” Senator Roberts said, “Our work was guided by the 9/11 Commission’s work, as well as the Senate Intelligence Committee’s decades of work on intelligence reform, including our inquiry into the U.S. Intelligence Community’s prewar intelligence assessments on Iraq.”

The following are details of the 9/11 National Security Protection Act:  

• Renames the Intelligence Community to be called the National Intelligence Service to indicate unity of effort and purpose.

• Creates a National Counter-terrorism Center under the NID.

• Creates a National Intelligence Director (NID) with complete budget and personnel authority, including hire and fire authority, and direct control over the national intelligence collection agencies currently residing in the Department of Defense (DoD).

• Proposes a major realignment of the major elements of our national intelligence organization into a rational organization, overseen by four Assistant National Intelligence Directors (ANIDs) for Collection; Analysis and Production; Research, Development and Acquisition; and Military Support.

• Removes the National Security Agency (NSA) and National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA) from DoD and puts them under the direct control of the ANID for Collection.

• Establishes the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and the DIA’s Defense Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Service as independent agencies under the direct control of the ANID for Collection. The CIA’s Directorate of Operations would be renamed the National Clandestine Service.

• Gives the ANID for Collection direct line control over the FBI’s Counter-intelligence / Counter-terrorism units, but they would continue to operate within the FBI for administrative and support purposes, and would still be subject to Attorney General guidelines.

• Realigns the remaining two directorates of the CIA and establishes them as independent agencies under the NID. The CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence would become the Office of National Assessments under the ANID for Analysis and Production. The Directorate of Science and Technology would become the Office of Technical Support under the ANID for Research, Development and Acquisition.

• Puts the DoD’s National Reconnaissance Office under the ANID for Research, Development and Acquisition.

• Gives the NID complete budget and personnel authority over the intelligence units of Treasury, Energy, Homeland Security, State Department, and the remaining analytical elements of the DIA, but they would continue to report to their home agencies on a day to day basis to maintain their analytical independence.

“The three major directorates that currently make up the CIA (Operations, Intelligence, and Science and Technology) will retain their same function, they will just be realigned under the NID to make the National Intelligence Service a more rational organization,” Senator Roberts said.