Bush Backs National Intelligence Director

by Olivier Knox
WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (AFP) - President George W. Bush on Monday joined a chorus calling for the US Congress to create the post of national intelligence director as part of an election-year overhaul to thwart terrorist attacks.
"Our country is safer than it was on September 11, 2001, yet we're still not safe," the president said in formal remarks from the White House Rose Garden. "We're a nation in danger."
Bush also called for the creation of a counter-terrorism center that would serve as a "knowledge bank" for information about known and suspected terrorists and would coordinate "effective joint action" against them.
The new post and the new center were among the recommendations by the official commission that investigated the government failures leading up to the September 11 terrorist attacks by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Bush's Democratic rival for the White House, Senator John Kerry, had embraced the September 11 commission's proposals in full, adding to the already heavy political pressure on the president to act.
But Bush, who fought the creation of the panel, balked at its call for placing the new intelligence director in his Cabinet or in the executive office of the US presidency.
"It ought to be a stand-alone group to better coordinate, particularly between foreign intelligence and domestic intelligence matters," he said. Aides had cited worries about "undue political influence" for that stance.
Bush called for legislation under which the president would nominate the director, who would be confirmed by the Senate but could be fired by the president, whom he would serve closely.
"The national director of intelligence will serve as the president's principal intelligence adviser and will oversee and coordinate the foreign and domestic activities of the intelligence community," he said.
But the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) would remain under a separate director, said the president, who has yet to appoint a full-time CIA chief to replace acting director John McLaughlin.
Currently, the CIA head oversees the 15 US intelligence agencies but lacks budgetary power over their programs. "The new national intelligence director ought to be able to coordinate budgets," Bush said.
Bush dismissed moves to call the US Congress back from its month-long August recess to craft the legislation necessary for creating the new post, which would require overhauling the 1947 National Security Act.
"The Congress has been thinking about some of these ideas. They can think about them over August and come back and act on them in September. We look forward to working with them," he said.
The president was flanked by FBI director Robert Mueller, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, McLaughlin, Homeland Secretary Tom Ridge, and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was absent.
At a campaign stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Kerry said he has been calling for a national intelligence director "for months" and declared: "We can do a better job in leading our country to safety."
Bush's announcement came amid ramped-up security around major financial institutions in New York and Washington following "alarming" intelligence of an al-Qaeda plot to use car bombs to attack the New York Stock Exchange and the IMF and World Bank headquarters.
The president noted that Ridge had raised the terrorism threat level to "high" in portions of Washington, New York and neighboring New Jersey on Sunday in response to the threat.
"The work of securing this vast nation is not done. The elevation of the threat level in New York, in New Jersey and Washington, DC is a serious reminder, a solemn reminder, of the threat we continue to face," said Bush.