 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Kathryn Jean Lopez: How much of what went wrong last Sept. 11 — intel gaps that made the attacks possible — has been fixed in the last year?
Bill Gertz: American intelligence agencies are in urgent need of repair. The system that developed around spying on foreign governments and foreign militaries is ill suited to getting at stateless groups of terrorists with no central governments or headquarters. Modest improvements have been made in security, such as airport security. But intelligence agencies have been largely untouched by reform. The CIA has added people to its counterterrorism center and is hiring new case officers and bringing back retirees. The budget has increased by several billion, yet with a badly structured system I fear the money will be wasted. The FBI has created an intelligence-analysis center and brought in CIA analysts. But the culture within the counterterrorism analytical community needs to be changed. The prevailing outlook of analysts is that it is impossible to predict a terrorist attack in advance. That is like training for the Olympics but believing you will never win a medal. Lopez: Should George Tenet have been fired sometime in the last year? Gertz: George Tenet should be replaced as part of urgently needed intelligence reforms. Tenet testified before the Senate in February 2002 that there was no intelligence failure and that he is proud of the CIA's record. The first step in fixing the problem of American intelligence is to recognize that there was an intelligence failure on September 11 and before, and then begin rebuilding with new leadership, not just at the top, but at the upper and middle levels. Tenet has been a key advocate of the politically correct approach to intelligence that was part of larger efforts by the Clinton administration to impose destructive policies on government. There is no place for that kind of politics in intelligence, or any national-security components of government. Effectiveness and only effectiveness and results should be the watchwords. Lopez: There's been some controversy involving your new book, Breakdown. Do you feel confident that there is nothing in there that could endanger the lives of Americans or compromise national security? Gertz: In my view, nothing in Breakdown compromises U.S. national security. An appendix to the book contains portions of classified government intelligence documents that highlight what the U.S. government knew about terrorism. In the interest of U.S. national security, the publisher discussed the documents with the U.S. government in advance of publication and agreed to withhold some material from publication. I believe that I handled the material in the book in a responsible manner that balances the public's right to know about the problems facing U.S. intelligence, and concerns about protecting U.S. national security. Lopez: Will the Department of Homeland Security help or hurt, in terms of intelligence? Gertz: The Department of Homeland Security is focused on what I call the "gatekeeper" functions of national security, all agencies that are not intelligence agencies. All intelligence agencies were excluded from the department. The department should help to improve the security functions such as immigration, border-patrol customs, etc. But it will not be an intelligence agency. The department will be one more consumer for the intelligence community. Lopez: Do you have any idea how compelling the case against Saddam Hussein will ultimately be? Gertz: There is no question that intelligence agencies have some solid information indicating Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons and biological weapons. I have reported in the Washington Times recent nuclear-weapons development efforts, which include attempts to purchase material for centrifuges that can make fuel for nuclear bombs. Iraq also has mobile vans that U.S. intelligence believes are being used for developing biological weapons. A defector from Iraq's weapons programs also has revealed that most of the WMD programs are dispersed in hundreds of secret locations around Iraq, including underground bunkers. Lopez: What's the worst thing today about American intelligence? Gertz: The most serious problem facing U.S. intelligence agencies today is a lack of human-intelligence capabilities. We don't have good spies. This is the result of decades of over-reliance on technical spying and letting friendly foreign-intelligence services do the spying on the ground. We urgently need a crash program to create a new clandestine service, one that will have as its main goal the penetration and disruption of terrorist organizations that have targeted the United States.
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
<% dim printurl
printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%>
ill
Gertz has been defense and national-security reporter for the Washington
Times since 1985. His latest book is 
