PRESIDENT BUSH expanded the powers of the CIA director yesterday as he battled to convince voters that he is the presidential candidate best equipped to keep them safe.
In a surprise move, Mr Bush signed a series of executive orders to strengthen the role of America’s top intelligence official with immediate effect.
The decision, in line with the recommendations of the independent 9/11 Commission, is in marked contrast to the White House approach five weeks ago. Then, in the aftermath of the 9/11 Commission’s report, Mr Bush suggested that he would take his time to digest the panel’s findings, returning to them after the election.
But with counter-terrorist chiefs saying that al-Qaeda is preparing to disrupt the presidential campaign, Republican strategists were concerned that Mr Bush would be left politically vulnerable if he failed to act sooner.
Mr Bush had already reversed his decision on a related intelligence issue, nominating the congressman Porter Goss to succeed George Tenet as the CIA director after initially signalling that he would leave the post vacant until after polling day in November.
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Under the interim order signed yesterday, Mr Bush gave far wider powers to John McLaughlin, the deputy CIA director who is currently running the agency.
Under the present arrangement, the CIA director is nominally in charge of the dozen other US intelligence agencies as well as the CIA. But in reality the Pentagon controls 80 per cent of $40 billion (£22.3 billion) annual intelligence budget, and the CIA chief’s reach is limited beyond the agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The central recommendation of the 9/11 panel was to replace the current regime with a single Cabinet-level appointee answerable for all intelligence agencies.
Mr Bush’s order goes some way towards that, creating the most powerful intelligence czar allowed under present law. It requires the heads of National Security Agency, the Defence Intelligence Agency and other intelligence chiefs to give Mr McLaughlin full decision-making powers over their operations, including their budgets.
White House officials signalled that as soon as Mr Goss was confirmed by the Senate, Mr Bush would push Congress to take reform a step further. “Until the national intelligence director is created by Congress, we want to make sure that we have an interim structure in place to oversee some of these steps that we are taking,” said Scott McClellan, Mr Bush’s spokesman.
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Mr Goss will face confirmation hearings next month.
Mr Bush’s orders were also designed to promote better intelligence-sharing between the agencies. Commissioners on the 9/11 panel have said that if the CIA and the FBI had pooled their information they would have had a good chance of identifying at least some of the hijackers.
The orders also pave the way for the creation of a national intelligence centre to co-ordinate co-operation between different agencies.