Forum: Political Debate+ Section: JFK Debate Subj : LEANER & KEENER CIA To : ALL Monday, January 30, 1995 5:23:15 PM From : STEVE N. BOCHAN, 74273,3457 #303156 There was an article published in today's Washington Post, written by Robert Gates, former Director of CIA, wherein he writes of proposing a leaner, keener CIA, that I thought might be of some interest. While he opines that without the President's interest and support, as well as that of the general public, the next DCI will also fail, some of his proposals were interesting. For example, Gates starts out by saying that there are three myths that need to be dispelled: 1) the budget has been and continues to be cut, 2) more is being asked of CIA by policy makers and Congress than ever before and 3) although Woolsey tried to change things, CIA has been inarticulate with the public and Congress with regard to the magnitude of the changes already taken place. His suggestions for change at CIA include the following: -- QUOTE -- * The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) should be given a fourth star and made a powerful director of Military Intelligence (DMI). When Robert McNamara created the DIA in the early 1960s, the four service intelligence organizations were supposed to wither. Instead, today we have a large DIA, large Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine intelligence organizations and large intelligence organizations at most major military commands. Functions that are duplicated in the service intelligence organizations should be consolidated under the DMI. * Duplication of military intelligence by the CIA should be eliminated. For example, the CIA has no need to maintain data-bases on foreign military order-of-battle and weapons capabilities. But competitive analysis of foreign military threats and programs for weapons of mass destruction probably should be continued by the CIA; having the military as the sole judge of the threats it faces ensures exaggeration. * In war-fighting today, there is no distinction between the space systems run by the DCI and other information collection capabilities run by Defense. Consolidation of the national and tactical intelligence programs would improve planning and support to the military. * A National Imagery Agency (NIA) should be created to place one person in charge of tasking the full range of U.S. imagery collection capabilities, from space systems to aircraft. * A structure needs to be created to manage the avalanche of unclassified open-source information. The community needs to create an "open-source gateway" through which all new policy-maker requirements must enter so a determination can be made of how much of the information requested is already available openly. * A new system for establishing intelligence requirements and evaluating the results must be structured to force the participation and guidance of senior policy makers--so that the community is focused on the issues of direct concern to its customers. * The CIA is going to get smaller and thus it should be more focused on issues that are central to national security--the former Soviet Union, China, regional powers and conflicts, terrorism, proliferation. Its willingness in a time of larger staff and budgets to accept requirements on issues such as environment, health, energy and agriculture is no longer consistent with its resources. * Paramilitary covert action should be assigned to the Department of Defense, consistent with current law and DCI statutory responsibilities. Efforts already underway to improve operational support to the military and to diversify cover for case officers should be strengthened. * Demands as a result of the Ames case to change the culture of the clandestine service should be pursued carefully. Much in that culture is positive and important and must be preserved. Even so, progress has been slow in addressing the lack of diversity, tolerance of inadequate performers, parochialism, bureaucratism and repeated failures to get information about problems to senior managers. * DCI authority over the budget and management of the community should be further strengthened. The DCI must remain the director of CIA; without the bureaucratic base, he or she would be ineffective in managing the community and serving as the president's chief intelligence advisor. * Recent progress toward greater "openness" in CIA should be accelerated. More information on intelligence process, management and the role of the agency can only improve public understanding. * Congress should strengthen its own oversight. Term limits on the intelligence committees should be abolished: By the time members have served long enough to understand this arcane business, they must rotate off the committee. This weakens oversight and puts more power in the hands of staff. Also, Congress should approve multi-year funding for major new collection systems and processing capabilities. -- END QUOTE -- Gates concludes the article by warning that, "The president and his new DCI cannot simply cede the initiative in changing and reforming CIA and U.S. intelligence to Congress or to the review commission it created." Further, Gates advises that the new DCI must shape a comprehensive agenda for future restructuring, and do so with the cooperation of the "heads of other U.S. intelligence organizations, senior policy makers, Congress and the commission." He also said that professionals in the community should always be looking afresh at the way they do business.