Presidential commission reports spy agencies Failer

The nine-member Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction was appointed by President Bush a year ago.
The report was led by Laurence H. Silberman, a retired federal judge, and Charles S. Robb, a former Democratic governor and senator from Virginia.

It gives a grim account of the spy agencies’ capabilities, despite a steady increase in the intelligence budget since 2001, to $40 billion a year from roughly $30 billion a year.

The report, recommends dozens of major changes at the 15 intelligence agencies. But even before its public release, officials at some intelligence agencies privately expressed fatigue and scant enthusiasm for further reshuffling, noting the agencies have been in a continuous state of flux since the September 2001 attacks.

“We’ve been spending so much time reorganizing, we haven’t had time to see if the changes we’ve already made have worked,” said one intelligence official

The members met Wednesday at commission offices in Arlington, Va., to review the report and plan its presentation to the president on Thursday.

The report, which focuses its main criticism on the Central Intelligence Agency, proposes the creation of an anti proliferation center to gauge the threat posed by chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. It calls for specific changes at agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is urged to create a more independent intelligence unit inside its existing structure.

The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, was signed by the President on February 6, 2004. The Commission is charged with assessing whether the Intelligence Community is sufficiently authorized, organized, equipped, trained, and resourced to identify and warn in a time to support United States Government efforts associated with the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, related means of delivery, and other related threats of the 21st Century and their employment by foreign powers.