White House Asks for Study on CIA Forces

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- The White House has requested that the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon study whether the Defense Department should take over CIA paramilitary operations, as recommended by the Sept. 11 commission.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then-acting CIA Director John McLaughlin rejected the idea -- McLaughlin quite viscerally -- when the commission issued its final report this summer. Bush's request indicates that the administration wants to give the issue closer study.

"The president asked that we look at this to understand and address the specifics of this issue," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Monday evening.

Both Whitman and a U.S. official, who also confirmed the study on the condition of anonymity, stressed that the work is being done collaboratively. The study is still in its early stages.


http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-cia-paramilitaries,0,1274412.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[DulceDecorum]

1. Destabilizing governments and organizations through violence

Within its 40-plus recommendations, the commission recommended the transfer of the CIA's paramilitary operations to the Defense Department. The commissioners said having two such organizations within the government to handle such operations was redundant.

Paramilitary operations can include a host of activities, including training rebel forces; destabilizing governments and organizations through violence; and directly attacking enemy targets and individuals. The operations can be handled by CIA paramilitary teams or units out of the Pentagon, such as the Green Berets or Delta Force.
<snip>
Some nibbling away at the CIA's domain is already under way. Recent legislation would give the U.S. Special Operations Command up to $25 million to support "foreign forces, irregular forces, groups or individuals" that help U.S. efforts against terrorists and other enemies. Such aid -- which could mean cash, weapons or other assistance to often shadowy groups or figures -- has traditionally been handled by the CIA.

Bush signed the measure into law last month.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-cia-paramilitaries,0,1274412.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[maddezmom]

2. NYT- Republican Defiance on Intelligence Bill Is Surprising. Or Is It?

ASHINGTON, Nov. 21 - In the afterglow of his re-election, President Bush declared that he had ''earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." But the capital that he put on the line was not enough this weekend, when recalcitrant House conservatives refused to back an intelligence bill for which he had personally lobbied.

The compromise bill unraveled when two influential Republican House committee chairmen, Representatives Duncan Hunter of California and F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, would not support it. At a time when Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress, the outcome raises questions about how much power the president has on Capitol Hill and how he intends to exert it in a second term.

~snip~

Members of both parties, and independent analysts, said Sunday that they had no doubt Congress would have passed the measure had President Bush flexed his muscle, as he did last year for Medicare prescription drug legislation that passed by a narrow margin over conservatives' objections. The intelligence bill had bipartisan support in the Senate.

~snip~

On Sunday, some Democrats wondered aloud if the Pentagon's back-channel lobbying had the tacit approval of the president.

"I find it very hard to believe that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense would do all of that in contravention of the commander in chief's wishes," said one House negotiator, Representative Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, in an interview on Sunday. Mr. Bush, Mr. Menendez said, "has the dirty work being done by the Pentagon people, using Duncan Hunter."


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/politics/22assess.html


edited to add, the study is a delay tactic by * to make it look like he gives two hoots about reforming the CIA.