FC: Bush administration considers a domestic spy agency

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61549-2002Nov15.html

   Bush Aides Consider Domestic Spy Agency

   By Dana Priest and Dan Eggen
   Washington Post Staff Writers
   Saturday, November 16, 2002; Page A01

   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 cultural sea change necessary to turn its agents into spies, but
   the creation of a new agency is firmly opposed by FBI Director Robert
   S. Mueller III, 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 chaired by national security
   adviser Condoleezza Rice. White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card
   Jr., Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, CIA Director George J.
   Tenet, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, Mueller and six others
   attended.

   [...]




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