Sept. 11 commission leaders say recommendations won't harm military

WASHINGTON (AP) - Leaders of the Sept. 11 commission told the Pentagon and its congressional backers Tuesday that creation of a national intelligence director would not jeopardize military operations.

Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, appearing before a House military panel, said their proposal would include a top Pentagon official as a deputy to the new director "to satisfy the needs of the warfighter and the national policy-maker."

"It is unimaginable to us that the national intelligence director would not give protection of our forces deployed in the field a high priority," the two said in a joint statement. Kean and Hamilton each read half the statement to the House Armed Services Committee.

They identified divided management of national intelligence, between the CIA and the Pentagon, as one of the major problems in fighting terrorism.

Top Defense Department officials also were testifying Tuesday.

The difficulty of convincing Congress to make Pentagon intelligence agencies subordinate to a new office was apparent when the committee's Republican chairman, Duncan Hunter of California, told the officials: "I don't see any specific mention of failure on the part of a DOD agency."

Pressing the two leaders for such an example, they said there was none, but added that the problem was lack of coordination among intelligence agencies.

Kean said that when then-CIA Director George Tenet declared a war on terrorism prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, "Nobody got it in other agencies. It was like he never said it."

Kean and Hamilton have been lobbying Congress to approve the recommendations in their 567-page report on new strategies to fight terrorism. The national intelligence director is among the most controversial, because the new official would control all 15 agencies in the intelligence community, including those under the direction of the Defense Department.

President Bush, who on Tuesday nominated House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla. as CIA director, has endorsed a national intelligence director. However, the president earlier this month resisted the recommendation that the director control all intelligence budgets.

Bush also backed the commission's recommendation that a counterterrorism center be established. But he disagreed with the panel's concept of placing both the center and the director within the White House.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democratic Party figures wrote President Bush Tuesday, urging him to call Congress back from its summer recess to pass legislation overhauling the intelligence community. Bush has shown no interest in doing so.

Appearing before reporters after a party caucus, Rep. Jane Harman of California, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, "We're ready to act. I think it makes all the sense in the world to convene a special session of Congress so that this legislation can be introduced."

"We have a responsibility to act and not to delay," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland.

The commission leaders acknowledged Tuesday that they've received criticism that the reforms would remove the secretary of defense from direct and immediate control over national intelligence assets. Their answer: make the Pentagon's undersecretary for intelligence a top deputy to the director.

They also acknowledged concerns that the counterterrorism center would interfere with the chain of command for military operations.

"The answer is no," they said. The center would be part of joint planning with military officials but not part of the military command that runs actual operations.

If the secretary of defense opposed an operation suggested by the planners, the plan would change, Kean and Hamilton said. "Or, the head of the NCTC (National Counterterrorism Center) would have to bump this issue up to the National Security Council and the president for resolution," they added.

In another defense-related proposal, the commission recommended that the Defense Department replace the CIA in directing paramilitary operations - those conducted by civilians assisting the armed forces.

They said the Special Operations Command was best qualified to train and direct such forces, and that military professionals should be running any operations where weapons greater than sidearms are needed.

"Many CIA paramilitary operatives are former military and former special forces anyway," they said.