Two years on, U.S. spy landscape little changed

[seemslikeadream]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 - As American intelligence agencies pursue a war against al Qaida and its allies, these same agencies are fighting a ferocious rearguard action to blunt demands for deeper changes in their missions and in the structure of the U.S. intelligence community. Nearly two years after 9/11, and contrary to the recommendations of congressional and independent panels of experts, agencies like the CIA, FBI and Defense Department are resisting reforms aimed at reducing turf battles and legal dilemmas, at streamlining bureaucracy and bringing accountability to the world of spying and counter-terrorism.
As the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, an MSNBC.com investigation found deep unhappiness with the stalled process of fixing the many problems that allowed 19 foreigners to plan, finance and launch the most sophisticated and deadly terrorist attack in history right here on American soil.

Interviews with past and current members of the intelligence community, the Bush administration, members of Congress and the U.S. military reveal, two years later, a consensus that President Bush missed an opportunity to untangle the nation’s Cold War-era intelligence bureaucracies and retool them to fight global terrorism.

“The problem is, I don’t think the president knows what he wants in this area,” says former Sen. Gary Hart, who co-chaired a commission before the 9/11 attacks that specifically warned that terrorists would strike the American homeland and that U.S. defenses were unprepared. “Right now, you have bureaucratic warfare all over the place, all about turf, not about American security. The trauma after 9/11 would have allowed the president do overcome that. But as time goes by, the bureaucratic mentality reasserts itself.”

All those interviewed were quick to praise the urgency with which the CIA and its sister agencies reacted to 9/11, particularly their performance in coordinating the Afghan Northern Alliance’s drive on the Taliban. Most also felt that Americans are, indeed, somewhat safer today than they were on Sept. 10, 2001.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3071399/