Bush Signs Intelligence Overhaul Into Law

President Bush signed the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s intelligence-gathering apparatus in half a century on Friday, a move that he said would bolster America’s defenses against “stateless networks” of terrorists.

But officials and key lawmakers said significantly more work lay ahead for the White House and Congress. Bush still must name a new national intelligence director, define the duties of the job and establish an office.

“This is only a first step,” said former Indiana Rep. Timothy J. Roemer, a Democratic member of the blue-ribbon commission that spent 20 months investigating the pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures and made most of the recommendations incorporated into the bill that Bush signed.

The law’s co-authors, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), agreed that more must be done. “Our legislation is the platform for the work that lies ahead,” they said in a statement. “We must ensure that our intelligence agencies have the leadership, agility and resources necessary for this new structure to succeed.”

Topping the to-do list is naming the national intelligence director, a post created by the law. The director Bush selects will have significant latitude to define not only the job but also the evolving roles of the 15 agencies he or she manages.

“This is a start-up, and there are 1,000 detailed questions when you have a start-up,” said Philip Zelikow, who was executive director of the Sept. 11 commission.

“A lot of it has to do with who is in charge and the way that person asserts their authorities. The first holder of the office will do a lot to define the institution.”

Bush will have some time to work through many of the issues because key aspects of the legislation do not take effect for six months, Zelikow noted.

The law, formally known as the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, creates a national counter-terrorism center to serve as the primary organization that processes terrorism-related intelligence.

“Had such information been handled more efficiently and more wisely, [the Sept. 11 attacks] might have been -- might have been -- interrupted,” said Democratic attorney Richard Ben-Veniste, a Sept. 11 commission member.

The legislation also includes several anti-terrorism provisions, adding 2,000 additional border patrol agents each year for five years, improving baggage screening procedures, imposing new standards on information that must be contained in driver’s licenses and making it easier to track suspected “lone wolf” terrorists not linked to known terrorist groups.

In all, the legislation imposes the broadest restructuring of America’s intelligence-gathering infrastructure since the creation of the CIA, the Department of Defense and the National Security Council after World War II.

One of the fundamental questions is whether the director of national intelligence will assume the role of briefing the president every day. The legislation establishes the director as the principal intelligence advisor to the president, but leaves it to the White House and its chosen director to interpret that authority.

Under the current arrangement, the CIA assembles the “president’s daily brief,” a top-secret summary of developments overseas. The CIA director usually delivers the briefing in person.

The new intelligence director could leave that arrangement intact or overhaul it, giving other agencies a greater role in assembling the daily brief and granting a wider group of experts access to the president.

The new director has the authority to appoint up to four deputies and to define their jobs, meaning he could use them as advisors or give them more substantial authority as managers with power over senior officials in other agencies. One possibility would be to have each deputy responsible for overseeing a category of intelligence collection -- such as from human sources, satellite images or communication signal intercepts.

The director is also empowered to set standards for promotion and training across the intelligence community. In theory, that means the director could push for changes in the instruction and curriculum at long-independent facilities, including the CIA academy.

Some measures in the legislation are already in place. The CIA and FBI already have created a counter-terrorism center, for example, but the law increases its authority.

Other proposed changes have yet to be addressed. The Sept. 11 commission, for instance, urged Congress to streamline the way it exercised oversight of the intelligence community.

But lawmakers concede that is a daunting task, given the turf battles that will erupt between members of Congress who serve on various committees that now share the oversight responsibility.

Yet success against terrorism “will depend on whether Congress can restructure itself,” said former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), a member of the Sept. 11 commission and onetime chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Although many officials Friday said they would like to see Bush move quickly on the matter, they added that it was paramount for the president to choose the best-qualified candidate. Top Bush aides said the president would move quickly to fill the job, but they would not set a timetable.

“The more important thing is to get the right person,” said former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission. Collins agreed, but said she would like to see the job filled without delay.

Bush signed the bill at a morning ceremony attended by more than 300 people, including families of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks and members of Congress and the Sept. 11 commission.

“Under this new law, our vast intelligence enterprise will become more unified, coordinated and effective,” Bush said. “It will enable us to better do our duty, which is to protect the American people.”

He added that the bill continued the “essential reorganization” of U.S. government.

“A key lesson of September the 11th, 2001, is that America’s intelligence agencies must work together as a single, unified enterprise,” Bush said.

The ceremony capped months of controversy over how best to meet the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, which also chastised Congress for taking “too little action to adjust itself or to restructure the executive branch to address the emerging terrorist threat.”

Egged on by family members of Sept. 11 victims, and by White House lobbying in the eleventh hour, huge majorities of both the House and the Senate approved the measure after a dispute over how much authority to grant to the new national intelligence director was resolved.

Although the bill gives the intelligence director budgetary authority, the full extent of the position’s powers remains to be worked out.

“Legislation alone won’t make us safer,” said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “We also need effective leadership. The president should pick a strong manager who will speak truth to power.”

Hamilton agreed, saying: “Passage of the law is phase one. Implementation is phase two.”