The Hindu : International : Reform may mean end of CIA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 24, 2004

International

International

Reform may mean end of CIA

Los Angeles: The Chairman of a committee investigating the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 on Sunday unveiled proposals to drastically reform the CIA, the U.S. international intelligence agency, which would effectively mean the dismantling of the organisation. The far-reaching reforms are the latest blow to the U.S. intelligence community, still reeling from the proposal from the September 11 commission to impose a single intelligence ``tsar'' to oversee the myriad of intelligence agencies. The Republican Senator, Pat Roberts, the Chairman of the Senate Committee investigating the attacks, revealed on television that he favoured devolving the CIA's three functions to smaller, independent agencies. His proposals are the most extensive reforms of U.S. intelligence agencies' structure yet proposed. ``We are not abolishing the CIA,'' Mr. Roberts said in a paper released ahead of the final report. ``We are reordering and renaming its three major elements. No one agency, no matter how distinguished its history, is more important than U.S. national security.'' Speaking on Sunday on CBS television, Mr. Roberts said: His proposals, the final version of which have not been shared with all the other members of the committee or the White House, would take the CIA's three main directorates — operations, which runs intelligence collection and covert actions; intelligence, which analyses intelligence reports; and science and technology — and place them in separate agencies. Each would report to a national intelligence director.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International