A G.O.P. Senator Proposes a Plan to Split Up C.I.A.
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: August 23, 2004
WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee said Sunday that he would propose legislation to break up the Central Intelligence Agency and divide its responsibilities among three new spy agencies.
The plan would eliminate the Pentagon's direct control over the National Security Agency and create a post of national intelligence director with virtually complete control over the government's $40 billion annual intelligence budget.
The sweeping proposal, by Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, which would also provide the national intelligence director with budget authority over counterterrorism and counterintelligence programs of the F.B.I., goes far beyond the recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission.
Aides to Senator Roberts said he had obtained support in principle from eight of nine Republicans on the intelligence committee and would present it Monday to the White House and to members of the Sept. 11 commission, whose final report has prompted President Bush and lawmakers to rush to overhaul the way the nation gathers and shares intelligence.
The plan is certain to be fiercely opposed by the C.I.A., WHICH WOULD CEASE TO EXIST, its responsibilities shifted elsewhere and its name probably eliminated; by the Pentagon, which would have to cede control over the N.S.A. and other defense intelligence agencies that it long described as essential to the military; and by several influential members of Congress who have warned against any drastic restructuring of the nation's intelligence community....
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/politics/23intel.html