Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [237]
The Defence Intelligence Staff(DIS), under the chief of Defence Intelligence, reports to the defense secretary. The DIS controls the Defence Geographic and Imagery Agency, which, like the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), produces both geographic and imagery products. According to press reports, there has been a large exodus of military intelligence officers from 2004-2007, lured away by better offers in the private sector.
Executive control of British intelligence is based on the Cabinet structure and its supporting Cabinet Office. The prime minister is responsible for all intelligence and security issues, with the support of the Ministerial Committee on the Intelligence Services, which serves an oversight and policy review function. The prime minister chairs the committee; other members are the deputy prime minister; the home, defense, and foreign secretaries; and the chancellor of the exchequer (equivalent to the U.S. secretary of the Treasury). In July 2007, the United Kingdom changed its intelligence management structure. There is now a head of Intelligence Security and Resilience, who also acts as security adviser to the prime minister. There will also be a separate head of Intelligence Assessment and chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). The JIC is part of the Cabinet Office, providing interdepartmental intelligence assessments to the government. The goal was to meet the recommendations of the Butler Report (an investigation led by Lord Butler into intelligence on Iraq’s WMD) to separate the intelligence policy advice and analytical roles at the top of British intelligence. Responsibility for the Single Intelligence Account (that is, the intelligence budget, less the DIS and the JIC), now goes to the cabinet secretary, who is the chief civil servant. Thus, the senior managers of British intelligence have a much closer relationship to policy makers and rely on the uniquely British concept of powerful career civil servants (the permanent undersecretaries) to administer on a nonpartisan basis. The closeness of the relationship obviates some of the more formal processes developed in the United States to determine intelligence requirements and resource allocation.
A key component in British intelligence is the joint Intelligence Committee, which is part of the Cabinet Office and has management, oversight, production, and foreign liaison functions. It serves as a link between policy makers and the intelligence components to establish and order priorities, which are then approved by the ministers. The JIC also periodically reviews agency performance in meeting established requirements. The JIC’s Assessments Staffproduces intelligence assessments on key issues, which are roughly equivalent to U.S. national intelligence estimates. The JIC also has a monitoring and warning role in terms of threats to British interests. The JIC is, in many respects, akin to the functions that now fall under the jurisdiction of the director of national intelligence, but the chairman of the JIC does not have the same rank or authority.
Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, established in 1994, oversees all three intelligence components. The committee considers the budget, administration, and policy of MI5, M16, and GCHQ, but its oversight function is not as powerful as that exercised by U.S. congressional committees. The Intelligence and Security Committee submits an annual report to the prime minister. The report is publicly released after sensitive portions have been deleted. The government then issues a response to the report.
The close intelligence relationship between Britain and the United States is most evident in the dealings between GCHQ and NSA, but it exists elsewhere. Britain’s independent imagery intelligence (IMINT) capability is restricted to airborne platforms, but it receives satellite imagery from the United States. A