NYT:WH Said to Reject Panel's Call for Greater Pentagon Role in Covert Ops

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT:
White House Is Said to Reject Panel's Call for a Greater Pentagon Role in Covert Operations
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: June 28, 2005


WASHINGTON, June 27 - The White House has decided to reject classified recommendations by a presidential commission that would have given the Pentagon greater authority to conduct covert action, senior government officials said Monday.

The decision is a victory for the Central Intelligence Agency, which has long been the principal architect and instrument of the secretive operations. The agency has been struggling to retain its authority in the power structure headed by John D. Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, especially as the Pentagon has pressed for a greater role in intelligence operations.

The White House will also designate the C.I.A. as the main manager of the government's human spying operations, even those conducted by the Pentagon and the F.B.I., the officials said.

The decisions are part of a detailed White House response, expected to be announced later this week, to the 74 recommendations issued in March by the commission, headed by Lawrence Silberman and Charles Robb, that examined the role of intelligence agencies in detecting and countering the international spread of illicit weapons. The plan for covert action was the only major recommendation explicitly rejected by a White House team headed by Fran Townsend, the president's homeland security adviser, the officials said....

***

Under Mr. Negroponte, who took office in April as part of the biggest intelligence overhaul in four decades, the C.I.A. no longer has the pre-eminence it commanded for decades....But in addressing the commission's recommendations, the White House appears to have decided to maintain the C.I.A.'s predominance in both covert action and human spying, the areas in which the agency has most rigorously defended its turf....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/28intel.html

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Not sir

CIA is mine mine dont you dare lessen her power. Crap put them all under CIA control. Next please. Subnect close

[Algomas]

2. Now that the CIA has been purged, its back in business!

[DeepModem Mom]

4. This puzzled me, Algomas, but I think you've got it figured. nt

[alittlelark]

3. Uh, with Rummy heading the pentagon... methinks this is a

"pre-'b*sh speech 'adjustment'."