Senate Approves Intelligence Reorganization Legislation

[cal04]

Senate Approves Intelligence Reorganization Legislation Endorsed by 9/11 Commission

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a massive reorganization of the United States intelligence community to address the Sept. 11 commission's complaints that the nation's spy agencies don't work together properly to deter terrorist attacks

The bill, approved on a 96-2 vote, would create a national counterterrorism center and also a position of national intelligence director who would coordinate most of the nation's nonmilitary intelligence agencies. Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the Democrats' senior senator, reminded his colleagues that they moved too quickly on the Iraq war resolution and the creation of the Homeland Security Department.

"Like a whipped dog fearing its master, the Senate obediently complied with the demands of the White House," Byrd said. "Hindsight reveals the mistakes the Senate made two years earlier." The Homeland Security Department is stymied by "bureaucratic infighting, unresolved turf wars, and insufficient funding," Byrd said, while the White House's arguments of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have "has disintegrated into a mess of lies and hot air."

Byrd and Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., were the only two no votes. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of Massachusetts and running mate John Edwards of North Carolina did not vote.


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBRUXGA00E.html

[ugarte]

1. So does this include the Republican immigration proposal

to ship 'suspicious foreigners' back to countries that torture?

[hughee99]

2. I'm confused...

Sens. Byrd and Hollings oppose implementing this recommendation of the 9/11 commission because they oppose the existence of the Homeland Security Department? If we're going to have the department anyway, and I have the feeling they wouldn't be able to get the votes to eliminate it, shouldn't we try to make it as effective and organized as possible? What's the point of paying for a massive federal bureaucracy when it can't even do it's job? What's the point of having a department of Homeland Confusion and Miscommunication?