Bush reforms intelligence community

President Bush signed an executive order that overhauls the intelligence community and broadens the authority given to the national intelligence director (DNI).

The White House said Thursday that the new executive order, which is an update to one signed by President Reagan in 1981, will “advance and institutionalize” the reforms that were made law by the 2004 Terrorism Prevention Act, and it will provide a “durable framework for the conduct of the nation’s intelligence communities.”

{mosads}“The revised executive order will accelerate efforts to build a more effective intelligence community capable of providing the president and his advisers with information necessary to defend our national and homeland security,” the White House said.

The order “strengthens” the authority of the DNI in a number of ways, including setting guidelines and goals for the 16 intelligence agencies and the authority to add or remove senior intelligence officials.

Senior administration officials said on a conference call Thursday morning that Bush “is anxious to implement a number of important tools that he and his successors are going to need to fight and win the war on terrorism.”

The officials added that they had been in constant contact with Congress throughout the revision process leading up to the new order, and that they had received “favorable reviews from our engagements with the Congress.”

The overall reason behind the reforms was, among other things, to streamline the intelligence-sharing between the 16 communities. Breakdowns in that process were blamed in part for both the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and faulty information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The senior administration officials stressed that the order continues to give intelligence officials the authority to use “all reasonable and lawful means” to provide the country with the best intelligence possible “in a manner that protects the constitutional rights of Americans.”

“That’s extremely important to us,” one official said.