Bush directive clarifies information sharing responsibility
Move is intended to resolve ambiguities in the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act.
President Bush issued a directive this week to clear up confused lines of responsibility for information sharing within the intelligence community.
The directive states that John Negroponte, the nation's new national intelligence director, will have "authority, direction and control" over John Russack, program manager for information sharing.
The directive was developed in response to findings by a presidential commission in March that found problems with regard to information sharing among agencies.
Russack is a CIA veteran and was the Energy Department's intelligence director before being appointed by the president in April to serve as program manager for the Information Sharing Environment, which was created by the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. In short, Russack is responsible for coordinating information sharing across the federal government.
The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction found overlapping authorities between the DNI and the ISE program manager. The commission said the program manager should report to the intelligence director.
The intelligence reform act was passed in response to findings of the 9/11 commission, which sharply criticized intelligence agencies for failing to share information.
Bush's directive says all of Russack's personnel, funds and resources will be part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
"The federal government collects information pursuant to law for many purposes, including to protect the nation against international terrorism and other threats to the nation's safety and well-being," the directive states. "The federal government faces great challenges in ensuring timely, effective and lawful collection, processing, analysis and dissemination of such information.
"It is of particular importance to ensure that federal agencies have appropriate access to the information they need to perform their homeland security, diplomatic, defense, foreign intelligence and law enforcement functions, and that state, local and tribal authorities have appropriate access to the information they need to perform their homeland security functions."