Senate GOP weighs overhaul of intelligence agencies

Seeking to avoid a repeat of Sept. 11, some Senate Republicans privately are considering a major overhaul of the CIA, FBI and other intelligence-gathering operations, according to Republican sources.

The restructuring effort would focus on improving coordination and communication among intelligence officials and modernizing an organization designed to fight the Cold War.

Republicans also plan to investigate whether intelligence failures contributed to last month's terrorist attacks.

"There are rumblings that there were many warnings in advance of Sept. 11," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a onetime chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "That has to be looked at."

Separately, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Fla., plans to hold a series of hearings to examine ways to bolster intelligence efforts to head off future terrorist attacks.

In an interview with CongressDaily, Graham said he has asked the Intelligence Committee staff to begin building a record for an investigation.

Graham said he will not convene hearings until later this year or early next year in order to allow senior intelligence community officials to focus on current threats instead of preparing congressional testimony.

Likewise, Senate Republicans are unlikely to launch a public effort for several months, according to sources.

For now, talks have been limited to informal discussions in the Senate cloakroom and private meetings.

Republicans involved in the effort, led by Intelligence ranking member Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said that revamping the nation's intelligence-gathering operations is a critical part of winning the war on terrorism.

"We are working under a management structure that comes out of the Cold War," Shelby said. "This new war will be won or lost on information."

Some Republicans complain that intelligence agencies need to do a better job of sharing critical information with other government entities or at-risk industries.

"There are gaps in the coordination of the intelligence agencies where you have people on the FBI watch list who are not communicated to the airlines," Specter said.

A key early stumbling is how the congressional effort itself would be organized.

Some Republicans, led by Shelby, believe that the congressional Intelligence committees should lead the effort with advice from informal task forces.

However, other Republicans back a congressionally sponsored commission to study the issue.

The Intelligence authorization bill that passed the House earlier this month, for example, would establish a far-reaching commission to find out why intelligence agencies failed to uncover last month's terrorist plot.