Senator says reform of intelligence agencies on fast track
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks should speed up efforts already under way for reforming intelligence organizations, Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Thursday.
In a speech at the National Press Club, Graham said lawmakers had approved a five-year budget plan for increased spending at intelligence agencies less than a week before the attacks, and that the plan should now move ahead quickly.
Congress earmarked the funds for improving the National Security Agency's ability to collect and analyze data and for expanding research and development by the intelligence community, he said.
"Today, we don't have enough [intelligence] agents with a real understanding of the cultures we need to understand," said Graham, noting that during the Cold War, the United States was overly reliant on satellite imagery and electronic eavesdropping equipment for spying on the Soviet Union.
Graham said human intelligence is required to crack organizations like the al Qaeda terrorist network. Tracking terrorists may also require using 'unsavory' sources of information, he said.
Recently passed anti-terrorism legislation will help remove some of the barriers to using "non-choir boys" as sources for intelligence information, he added.
The al Qaeda network is difficult to track electronically because it operates in small cells and eschews communication to avoid detection, according to intelligence experts. "Intelligence agencies have not adapted quickly enough to meet these new threats," said Graham.
Graham declined to blame the lack of a warning before the Sept. 11 attacks on any single government organization, saying it was too soon to be pointing fingers. But, he said, his committee is already planning hearings to determine "what went wrong."
Graham continued to express concern about the Bush Administration's homeland defense office and said he had "strong suspicions" that Congress would eventually need to pass legislation giving the office greater budget authority. However, he said he would not push the legislation until next year.
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