President George W. Bush urged creation of a national intelligence director to coordinate the war on terrorism but without the sweeping powers for hiring, firing and spending at the CIA, FBI and other agencies as recommended by the Sept. 11 commission.
"We're a nation in danger," Bush said Monday in a White House Rose Garden appearance where he announced his support for a national intelligence chief and the establishment of a national center to plan counterterror operations in the US and abroad. "We're doing everything we can in our power to confront the danger."
PHOTO: AP
While Congress works on legislation to create the new intelligence director post, the president will tell the CIA director to tap all the authority he has under current law to manage the nation's 15 spy agencies, a senior administration official said on condition of anonymity.
The official would not speculate about who would be put in charge of carrying this out.
He said Bush might name acting CIA director John McLaughlin to the job, and later, after the new post is created, would nominate him or someone else to be America's first national intelligence director. The president also needs to fill the CIA director's slot by picking McLaughlin, who's been warming the seat since George Tenet resigned in June, or someone new.
"I expect he'll have more to say on that soon," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
Bush's announcement showed his determination to keep what polls show is a substantial advantage over Democratic rival John Kerry on the issue of fighting terrorism. Kerry's aides said Bush's appearance and a new terror warning covering financial institutions in New York, Washington and New Jersey was an example of the president's ability to control the campaign agenda.
Kerry said Bush should act more quickly.
"I regret that the president seems to have no sense of urgency to make America as safe as it needs to be," said Kerry, who has endorsed all of the commission's 40 or so recommendations.
"We cannot afford reluctance in the protection of our country," Kerry said after Bush's announcement.
Kerry also accused the president of "encouraging the recruitment of terrorists" by alienating moderates in the Muslim world, in part through his handling of Iraq -- prompting Bush to retort from the Rose Garden that his opponent showed "a fundamental misunderstanding of the war on terror."
The televised back-and-forth between the Democratic nominee and the incumbent president over terrorism overshadowed Kerry's two-week campaign trip through the states for a second straight day.
"If the president had a sense of urgency about this director of intelligence and about the needs to strengthen America, he would call the Congress back and get the job done now," Kerry said during a campaign stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
"The terror alert yesterday just underscores that if we're being serious about this we have to move on every possible option to make our nation as safe as possible," he continued. "The time to act is now, not later."
Brushing aside Kerry's comments, Bush said he had no plans to summon Congress back into a special session this summer to address the proposed changes. "They can think about them over August and come back and act on them in September," said Bush.
The creation of a national intelligence director and counterterrorism center were the central recommendations of the independent commission to strengthen the nation's fight against terrorism. In a scathing report, the commission said intelligence and law enforcement agencies mishandled clues that might have led them to the Sept. 11 attackers.
The report warned that the nation was still at substantial risk, and panel members urged the president and Congress to embrace their recommendations in full.
Commission leaders welcomed Bush's announcement as "an important step in the process of reorganizing the US government for a new era."
"We look forward to discussions with the administration and with Congress about the substance of these ideas,'" Chairman Thomas H. Kean and Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton said in a statement. "The president has stated some of his goals for that process. The fate of these reform ideas turns vitally on the specifics."
Kean and Hamilton also welcomed "Senator Kerry's unequivocal endorsement of the commission's recommendations."
Bush rejected the panel's recommendation that the director control all intelligence budgets, and have the authority to choose who would lead the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies.
The president also turned aside the commission's idea for placing both the counterterrorism center and the director within the White House.
"I don't think that person ought to be a member of my Cabinet," Bush said.
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