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U.S. Response I: U.S. Must Consolidate Intelligence, Ridge Says By David Ruppe “I believe that FBI Director Bob Mueller took a very significant step in that direction to enhance the analytical capacity within the FBI,” Ridge said (see GSN, May 30). “I still believe, however, that there is more work that needs to be done with regard to the analysis of information from a variety of intelligence sources in this country, and there are multiple sources. The FBI happens to be one of the most significant, if not the most significant, domestic source,” he said. Critics have targeted U.S. anti-terrorism capabilities recently for failing to “connect the dots” between various pieces of information — to draw conclusions and have them acted upon to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks. “What is needed, urgently, is a way for the potpourri of information available to the government — including assessments of our infrastructure's vulnerabilities, foreign intelligence, law enforcement material, and the hunches of FBI agents and academic analysts — to be pulled together in one place and assessed by people with [a] sixth sense,” former CIA director R. James Woolsey wrote in a May 21 commentary in the Wall Street Journal. Woolsey concluded that the task must be done in the White House and “the most obvious place to focus it would be in Tom Ridge’s Homeland Security office.” Ridge said his office, as part of its mandate, has been actively reviewing the idea of creating such a capability and is planning recommendations as it prepares to provide the president with a national counterterrorism strategy. Ridge said he does not believe, however, that his office would be appropriate for the job. “I don’t believe we should ever have that, or will ever have that capacity within the Office of Homeland Security as it is set up as an advisory [body] to the president of the United States,” he said. “There’s limited staff, limited capability.” Intelligence Structure Changes Mueller announced Wednesday that the FBI is reorganizing its resources to drastically increase focus on preventing terrorism, including plans to hire 900 new specialists intended to improve the bureau’s intelligence-gathering and analytical capabilities. Separately, Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday announced a controversial revision to FBI regulations, allowing officials to collect intelligence by monitoring institutions and activities without first providing evidence of potential criminal activity. The FBI and the CIA reportedly have stepped up cooperation on intelligence sharing since the attacks. Ridge also said federal agencies have been increasingly sharing intelligence with state and local authorities. Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, however, said such developments are insufficient to address U.S. intelligence needs for addressing the terrorism threat. Civilian U.S. intelligence agents generally remain structured on a pyramid model where information is collected by many agencies and funneled to the most senior federal policymakers, Aftergood said. He suggested creating a new model resembling a “web” or a “net” through which “many people would have access to the relevant information, rather than simply a few decision-makers at the top.” “The president and senior policymakers run the country only in the most superficial sense. In reality it is run by many thousands of people doing many different kinds of jobs in many places and all of them need access to good information,” he said. “They are dealing with this stuff on sort of a patchwork basis … trying to adapt the existing system, to try to make it do what needs to be done. And that may just be too hard,” he said. Ridge, for his part, appears to see a need for adding such a new capability to old ones. “We still don’t have a common gathering place where we can process more of the information and try to fuse it at the national level. So while the FBI has made a great step, a significant step forward, there is additional work that needs to be done,” he said.
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