President Bush’s top national security advisers have begun discussing the creation of a new domestic intelligence agency that would take over responsibility for counterterrorism spying and analysis from the FBI, according to U.S. government officials and intelligence experts.
The high-level debate reflects a widespread concern that the FBI has been unable to transform itself from a law-enforcement agency into an intelligence-gathering unit able to detect and thwart terrorist plans in the United States.
The FBI has admitted it has not yet completed the change necessary to turn its agents into spies, but the creation of a new agency is firmly opposed by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who has said he believes the bureau can do the job.
On Veterans Day, top national security officials gathered for two hours to discuss the issue in a meeting led by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that also included White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, CIA director George Tenet, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, Mueller and six others.
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge was recently dispatched to London for a briefing on the fabled MI5, an agency empowered to collect and analyze intelligence within Britain, leaving law enforcement to the police. Similarly, if another agency were created in the United States, it would not replace the FBI but would have the primary role in gathering and analyzing intelligence about Americans and foreign nationals in the United States.
Revelations of the debate come amid heightened apprehension within the U.S. intelligence community over the possibility of large-scale terrorist strikes against the United States or Europe.
A Bush administration spokesman, who asked not to be named, said no conclusions were reached about a domestic intelligence agency during the Veterans Day meeting. He said an MI5-style agency was just one option considered.
The official and other sources knowledgeable about the issue said the White House first wants to launch a Homeland Security Department, which would include an intelligence analysis division.