Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [224]
Still, the misperception persists, even among some policy makers, that round-the-clock news sources upstage the work of the intelligence community. The misperception that the two are in competition may reveal a less than firm understanding of their fundamental differences, although the news media may employ concepts, technologies, and approaches that would be of use to intelligence.
ISSUES IN INTELLIGENCE REFORM
Discussions about intelligence reform tend to fall into two broad areas: structure—or reorganization—and process. Both approaches have their advocates. Ideally, the issues should be approached together. Altered structure and unaltered process can become little more than moving boxes on the bureaucratic organization chart. Changing the process without changing structure would likely end in few, if any, meaningful results, as the old structure would probably resist the new processes. The following are some of the more frequently discussed issues in intelligence reform, some of which have been mentioned in preceding chapters. Some issues have been settled by the 2004 legislation, but they are likely to be touch-stones of future debate as the new intelligence structure begins to work and remains under scrutiny.
THE ROLF OF THE DCI AND THE DNI. The most central issue in the management and functioning of the intelligence community was the gap between the responsibilities (extensive) and the authority (limited) of the DCI. Under Executive Order 12333 (1981), the DCI was “the primary adviser to the President and the NSC [National Security Council] on national foreign intelligence.” The designation included “full responsibility for [the] production and dissemination of national foreign intelligence,” which included the authority to task agencies beyond the CIA. These responsibilities have passed to the director of national intelligence (DNI), although it is not clear that the problem of the DNI’s authorities has been resolved.
The DNI’s authority remains limited and may be subject to even more stress than was the case for the DCI. Some 75-80 percent of intelligence agencies and their budgets remain under the direct control of the secretary of defense. Any additional power granted to the DNI can come only from the secretary of defense. Although Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (2006- ) and his undersecretary for intelligence, James Clapper (2007- ), have taken a much more cooperative approach to their relationship with the DNI than was the case with their predecessors, it still remains unlikely that there will be major shifts of actual power or control over the two collection agencies [National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and NSA], which are also defense intelligence agencies and combat support agencies. Moreover, it is not at all certain that the agreements struck by the current senior leadership will survive the 2009 transition to new officials who may have less of long-term personal relationship on which to rely. Congress also is a factor in any redistribution of power, with the House and Senate Armed Services Committees jealously guarding the turf of the Department of Defense (DOD) that they oversee. The argument over power is a zero-sum game. Although few, if any, secretaries of defense have believed that the DCI threatened their authority, DOD was clear about preserving all of its authority during the congressional debate in 2004. Defense officials worry about