FAS | Intelligence | News | 2002 ||||

December 2002 Intelligence News

• Push Is On to Overhaul FBI by Thomas Frank, Newsday, December 29. "A small but significant number of lawmakers and experts are starting to push for an overhaul of the FBI and are talking seriously about creating a new agency to run intelligence inside the United States."
• Database Monitor Far From a Reality by Jim Puzzanghera, San Jose Mercury News, December 26. "Steven Aftergood, a research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists and a critic of the plan, said it could actually end up harming the war on terrorism by diverting law enforcement resources down innumerable dead ends."
• Pearl Harbor planning for $220 million project by Sean Hao, Honolulu Advertiser, December 24. "The military is planning to build a $220 million complex at Pearl Harbor for intelligence gathering and analysis that would be one of the largest projects at the naval base in coming years."
• Judiciary Panel Adds Surveillance Oversight by Brian Krebs, WashingtonPost.com, December 23. "The Senate Judiciary Committee next year will have its hands full balancing perennial high-tech policy debates with oversight of new federal surveillance and data-gathering powers."
• Examples of Omissions From the Iraqi Declaration to the United Nations, State Department Fact Sheet, December 19. "None of these holes and gaps in Iraq's declaration are mere accidents, editing oversights or technical mistakes: they are material omissions."
• Designation of Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group as Terrorist Organization, State Department determination, Federal Register, December 17.
• Thomas H. Kean Named to Head 9/11 Commission, White House statement, December 16.
• Panel report indicates intelligence unreformed, Florida Today, December 14. "Anyone looking for signs of significant progress in overhauling the nation's sprawling network of intelligence agencies won't find it in the final version of a Senate panel's report into the Sept. 11 attacks."
• Henry Kissinger's Letter of Resignation from the September 11 Commission, December 13. "My hope is that, by the decision to step aside now, the Joint Commission can proceed without further controversy."
• Intelligence overhaul necessary, panel says, by Mary Jacoby, St. Petersburg Times, December 12. "Unfortunately, the committee members said, some of the most illuminating information about why the overhaul is needed must remain secret."
• Panel Proposes Reforms to Try to Prevent Terrorist Attacks, by Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, December 11. "But the proposals were greeted with skepticism from experts and criticism from at least one key senator on the panel for being too soft on the CIA and other intelligence agencies."
• Domestic Intelligence Agency Gains Support, by Laura Sullivan, Baltimore Sun, December 10. "Despite fierce opposition from the FBI, support is growing in Washington for the creation of a domestic intelligence agency that could take over intelligence gathering and counterterrorism from the bureau."
• Kurdistan Workers' Party Designated a Terrorist Organization, Federal Register, December 9.
• Iraqi Declaration on Weapons of Mass Destruction (Table of Contents), as submitted to the United Nations, December 7.
• Not Henry Kissinger (editorial), San Francisco Chronicle, December 3. "It is true that Kissinger, a master political statesman, has extensive experience in foreign diplomacy. But he is also famous for conducting governmental affairs with secrecy and even deceit."
• Rumsfeld on CIA Info, Yemen Attack, excerpts from press briefing, December 3. "I don't even concede there was a Yemen mission."
• Shuffling at the Top is Set for Intelligence Committees, by Carl Hulse, New York Times, December 2. "A Republican Senator who has been highly critical of the Congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks is in line to lead the Senate Intelligence Committee."