Coordinating Sessions Reduced to 3 a Week
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 10, 2005; Page A15
The daily 5 o'clock meeting at CIA headquarters that for the past three years has coordinated tactical counterterrorism operations involving senior CIA, FBI, Pentagon and Homeland Security Department officials has been cut back by new CIA Director Porter J. Goss to three a week, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.
The sessions were initiated by former CIA director George J. Tenet because of the failures of coordination among intelligence agencies before Sept. 11, 2001. He used the sessions to push the agencies to carry out specific activities, whether at home or abroad. The meetings were continued by Tenet's former deputy, John E. McLaughlin, while he was acting director and initially by Goss.
CIA Director Porter J. Goss, left, has scaled back the once daily meetings of CIA, FBI, Pentagon and Homeland Security officials to coordinate counterterrorism operations. (Charles Dharapak -- AP)
Recently, however, Goss, a former House member and onetime CIA case officer, created "a different format," according to an administration official familiar with the program. Goss instead chairs a somewhat similar meeting with a smaller group of senior officials from the agencies, who brief him three mornings a week, the official said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61558-2005Jan9.html