National Security Watch: Republicans seek shift in control of spies
The 2006 authorization bill for the intelligence community, passed unanimously by the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, reveals a behind-the-scenes debate that has been raging in the committee for many months about the performance of the CIA's directorate of operations, which is the main source of human intelligence (HUMINT), or traditional spying activities.
Specifically, several Republicans on the panel, who have been unhappy with the DO's performance in recent years, inserted language into the bill that says the director of national intelligence should be responsible for ensuring that analysts in all intelligence agencies have access to the appropriate human intelligence reports.
Explaining this change in the bill's report, the Republican majority says that the DO does not "effectively exercise the authorities of the National HUMINT manager, often focusing on its own structure and operations instead of coordinating a strong, Intelligence Community-wide HUMINT effort." The report goes on to suggest that "the DNI, as 'national HUMINT manager' . . . provides a level playing field for all elements engaged in HUMINT operations." But other sources note that the CIA remains the coordinator of human intelligence and indeed is supposed to be the primary HUMINT agency.
"I think this reflects a bias against the CIA," says one committee source. In a dissent in the report on the bill, the Democrats on the panel are critical.
"The CIA must remain in charge," they write. "The DNI was not established as a new bureaucracy to assume the responsibility for day-to-day intelligence operations." They add that the DNI already has authority to ensure information sharing for all types of intelligence.
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