[infowar.de] Rumsfeld will zivile Posten für Intelligence und Homeland Security einrichten

[Ralf Bendrath <bendrath -! - zedat - fu-berlin - de>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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Inside The Pentagon
December 6, 2001

Elaine M. Grossman

Rumsfeld Seeks To Create Civilian Posts For Intel, Homeland Security

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week asked Congress to give him
the authority to create two new, senior-level civilian positions aimed
at strengthening his hand in the war against terrorism: an under
secretary of defense for homeland security and another under secretary
for intelligence.

"Since the attacks of Sept. 11, we have engaged in an extensive review
of our operations to determine if we are best organized and arranged to
conduct a sustained campaign against terrorism," Rumsfeld writes in a
Nov. 26 letter to the chairman and ranking minority member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee. "As a partial result of our efforts, it is
becoming clear that we are likely to need reorganization in two
principal areas: intelligence and homeland security."

The defense secretary needs Congress to approve the creation of
appointed positions, and Rumsfeld asked the senators to include such
authority in the ongoing defense conference with the House over the
fiscal year 2002 defense authorization bill.

In the letter, obtained by Inside the Pentagon, Rumsfeld tells the
lawmakers he recognizes there may be reluctance to establish the new
positions without much explanation. He said "there are many details to
be examined" in an "accelerated review" aimed at determining "how best
to transition from our current structure to a future one in which
intelligence and homeland security receive the level of attention they
merit."

Neither the intelligence community nor the defense establishment was
well prepared for the kind of terrorist attacks perpetrated against New
York and Washington on Sept. 11, which the U.S. government blames on
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Rumsfeld says the answer is not to grow the Pentagon bureaucracy but to
change it. "It is not my intention . . . that the overall size of [the
Office of the Secretary of Defense] would grow, so we will find
organizational offsets to account for two new under secretaries," he
writes. "We expect this task will be completed in time for us to
request, in our [fiscal year] 2003 budget submission, additional
statutory authority that may be needed."

The White House is expected to submit its FY-03 budget request to
Congress early next year.

In an interesting twist, Rumsfeld acknowledges the request for the new
intelligence position would appear to conflict with an earlier
recommendation to create an under secretary for space and intelligence,
made by a commission on space that he chaired before becoming defense
secretary. Both congressional chambers included in their defense
authorization bills provisions creating the new space and intelligence
slot.

"Quite apart from the findings of the Space Commission, though, the
experiences of the terrorism campaign to date highlight a need to
consolidate intelligence activities within the department," Rumsfeld
writes.


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