8-1-03
WASHINGTON - Sen. Bob Graham and two Democratic allies Thursday introduced legislation to shake up intelligence agencies and create a Cabinet-level ''czar'' to oversee them to better protect the nation against terrorist attacks.
Taking advantage of the publicity over the congressional report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Graham's bill incorporates many of the report's bipartisan recommendations, designed to centralize the government's 14 agencies that handle intelligence and improve accountability.
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Graham noted that Tenet ''declared war'' on Osama bin Laden in 1998, but his ''spare no resources'' memo targeting al Qaeda terrorists as a top priority was never followed.
''We learned that only a few at the CIA responded to his battle cry, and no one at the other agencies, especially the FBI, had even heard the trumpet,'' Graham said. ``The intelligence community needs a leader with the clout to set common goals, establish priorities, knock heads, and when necessary assure that the American people are protected.''
TOP PRIORITY
Graham's bill also requires the FBI to make counterterrorism a top priority, overhaul its information technology and make it easier to share intelligence with state and local authorities.
Another goal of the legislation is a National Terrorist Watchlist Center, with a centralized data base of suspected terrorists accessible to border security and law enforcement.
A recent report from the General Accounting Office found that 18 months after Sept. 11, nine federal agencies maintained 12 different lists with different names.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/6431892.htm
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