Bush Visits CIA, Emphasizing the Agency’s Continued Importance

President Bush paid a rare visit to the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Va., on Thursday in an effort to boost morale at an agency that will have a diminished role after a restructuring of the U.S. intelligence community.

Bush said the purpose of the trip was to reassure agency employees that the CIA would continue to play a primary role in the collection and analysis of intelligence on terrorism and other threats.

“Obviously, one of the reasons I came here is because I know there’s some uncertainty about what this reform means to the people of the CIA,” he said. “And I wanted to assure them that the reforms will strengthen their efforts and make it easier for them to do their job, not harder.”

Under landmark reform legislation passed last year, the CIA and its director, Porter J. Goss, are to relinquish several of the key functions and authorities the agency has held for nearly half a century.

Most notably, the new position of director of national intelligence has been created to take over responsibility for coordinating the activities of the CIA and the other 14 agencies of the nation’s spy community.

That new director will also replace the CIA chief in delivering a daily intelligence briefing to the president.

In remarks to the media after meeting with Goss and other agency officials, Bush stressed that the CIA would remain “the center of the intelligence community” even after reforms were implemented.

Last month, Bush nominated U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John D. Negroponte to serve as the nation’s first intelligence director. Negroponte is expected to face Senate confirmation hearings next month.

Earlier Thursday, Bush had said at a separate event that preventing Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from again striking the United States was “the greatest challenge of our day.” Bush returned to the subject at CIA headquarters, saying U.S. intelligence agencies “spend every day gathering information to locate Osama bin Laden” and other Al Qaeda leaders.

“I came out here to remind people that we’ve had great success” capturing several of Bin Laden’s lieutenants, Bush said. “But there’s more work to be done.... As far as I’m concerned and as far as the CIA is concerned, it’s a matter of time before we bring these people to justice.”

Bush’s visit came one day after Goss made a public appearance, at which he said he was “amazed at the workload” of the job of CIA director. Goss made the remark during a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

“The jobs I’m being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal,” Goss said, according to Associated Press. “I’m a little amazed at the workload.”

Goss also said that because of ambiguities in the reform legislation, he was unclear about aspects of his future role and relationship with the director of national intelligence.

A CIA spokeswoman said Bush’s visit had been planned for some time, and that it was not prompted by Goss’ comments in California. She also said that Goss’ comments were meant to express his support for the creation of the position of director of national intelligence, not to suggest that he was overwhelmed by his job.

The CIA director position “has gotten so much bigger than it ever was intended to be, and there’s so much work to be doing, that it’s great to have two doing it versus one,” CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise said. “This will give [Goss] the ability to focus like a laser beam on the rebuilding of the CIA.”

The agency is in the midst of a major expansion. Bush has called for the CIA to expand its clandestine and analytic branches by 50%.

Bush spent nearly two hours at CIA headquarters, which is named for his father, and took part in a classified briefing that officials declined to discuss. He also met with hundreds of agency employees. It was the third time during his presidency that he has visited the agency. The last time was Sept. 26, 2001, 15 days after the Sept. 11 attacks.