Amid criticism of the Bush administration’s faulty intelligence
about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, a presidential report
has yielded some suggestions for improvements.
The report, issued by the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities
of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, was
seen as an indictment of the National Security Agency and Central
Intelligence Agency. “They and other intelligence agencies
are vast government bureaucracies,” the report asserted.
The examination, requested by the White House, also put forth 74
recommendations. The commission had access to secret documents denied
to the more publicized—and politicized—National Commission
on Terrorist Acts Upon the United States.
Among the commission’s recommendations are the creation of
a non-governmental organization that would serve as a check on intelligence
agency findings, and the formation of a National Intelligence University
that would train analysts and spies.
The commission also proposed creation of a National Counterproliferation
Center that would be composed of fewer than 100 staffers. The center
would manage and coordinate intelligence on weapons proliferation.
That task currently is handled by the National Counterterrorism
Center and the proposed organization would join it, rather than
replace it, in this capacity.
Other units would include a long-term analysis team to offer big
picture viewpoints without the pressures of day-to-day intelligence
collection and an open-source directorate to focus on finding publicly
available information that could be of vital use to intelligence
gatherers.