Bush's Intelligence Panel Gains Stature

Duties Expanding Amid Uncertainty

President Bush's commission to study intelligence, appointed one year ago yesterday, has taken on greater importance as the administration struggles to restructure the U.S. intelligence community as required in the bill passed by Congress in December.

Vice President Cheney yesterday described the president's panel, officially titled the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, as "one of the most important things going forward today."

Noting during his appearance on "Fox News Sunday" that the panel's report is expected next month, Cheney said, "I think that will be a very important piece of work . . . for us to use as guidelines for further ways in which we can improve our capability."

Since its appointment Feb. 6, 2004, Bush has given the commission additional responsibilities beyond reviewing intelligence successes and failures over the past four years. For example, after the president signed the intelligence restructuring bill on Dec. 17, the panel was ordered to review how it could be implemented.

Bush also directed that CIA Director Porter J. Goss send the panel his recommendations for increasing by 50 percent the number of case officers and analysts. And the president ordered the Pentagon and CIA groups looking at future handling of clandestine paramilitary operations to send their reports to the commission.

Cheney, who has played a major behind-the-scenes role on intelligence within the Bush White House, yesterday praised the panel, chaired by retired federal judge Laurence H. Silberman and former senator Charles S. Robb (D-Va.). "They've done, sort of quietly outside the glare of publicity . . . I think a very, very thorough job of reviewing our intelligence needs and requirements across the board," Cheney said.

Administration officials may be waiting for guidance from the commission report because the White House has been unable to name a new director of national intelligence, one of the key elements of the restructuring, because under the statute, the powers and authority of that individual are unclear.

The presidentially appointed director of the new National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) also has not been selected. The statute charges that the director, set to be the central strategic planner in the fight against terrorists at home and abroad, report to the president on clandestine counterterrorism operations and the director of national intelligence on other programs such as threat analyses and distribution of terrorist information.

Meanwhile, the NCTC, which combines the Terrorist Threat Integration Center with counterterrorism elements from the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, is being directed by senior CIA official John O. Brennan.

Goss, whose agency by law is now independent, supervised the formulation of the $40 billion-plus fiscal 2006 budget for the 15 agencies that make up the intelligence community, although more than 80 percent of the total will be spent by Defense Department agencies.

On Capitol Hill, there is a recognition that last year's legislation may need some changes before implementation can be completed. In January, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and a prime mover on the intelligence bill, said she recognized that the legislation "reflects compromises and may well need to be 'tweaked.' "