Lawmaker warns of changing Pentagon intelligence role

House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., on Tuesday warned about the effect on the Pentagon if intelligence operations are overhauled as recommended by the commission that studied the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"Under your proposal, the direction of those strategic assets would go to the national intelligence director," Hunter said, adding that the report found failures or negligence on the part of Defense Department intelligence agencies.

During a hearing on the commission's final report, Hunter told the panel he will not downplay its suggestions and acknowledged that President Bush's support for the creation of a National Counterterrorism Center and an intelligence director "will eventually lead to improved cooperation and coordination among different agencies."

The commission chairman, former New Jersey GOP Gov. Thomas Kean, emphasized the recommendations seek better coordination of the 15 intelligence agencies criticized in the report for failing to share information, including those overseen by the Pentagon. But Hunter questioned the wisdom of removing control of strategic assets -- such as satellite imaging and positioning capabilities that support battlefield operations -- from the military and handing them over to the new director.

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., the commission's vice chairman, said the panel aimed to "increase the capability of the intelligence community to identify terrorist threats." He told Hunter: "The line [between tactical and strategic intelligence assets] at times may be difficult to draw." Kean said the new director needs authority over all intelligence, including personnel, information technology and security.

"Appropriations for intelligence should come to him, and he should have the authority to reprogram funds within and between intelligence agencies," he said. "He would not be like other 'czars' who get the title but have no meaningful authority."

Responding to concern that panel recommendations would remove immediate control over national intelligence assets from the Defense secretary, Hamilton said: "This is precisely why we believe one of the national intelligence director's deputies must be the Defense Department's undersecretary for intelligence. It is precisely his job to balance the great -- but not limitless -- intelligence resources of the United States to satisfy the needs of both the warfighter and the national policy maker."