Gibbons: Intelligence network still scattered

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 | 9:28 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- America's intelligence network is scattered like pieces of a puzzle, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., told a congressional panel today. It's as if dozens of federal agencies have grabbed a handful of pieces and are working separately in different rooms to put the puzzle together.

"They don't have the big picture," Gibbons, a member of the House Intelligence Committee and vice chairman of its Terrorism and Homeland Security subcommittee.

Gibbons testified in the House Government Reform Committee, which today began an immediate examination of President Bush's proposal, announced last week, to restructure government by creating a new Department of Homeland Security.

On the nine-month anniversary of the terrorist attacks, lawmakers began to face the daunting task of orchestrating the largest governmental restructuring since 1947.

Gibbons had introduced legislation last month that would require many of the same changes Bush advocates, including the creation of a Cabinet-level Secretary of Homeland Security who would oversee a new department.

But Bush's bill proposes more massive structural changes by creating a 170,000-employee department that would put a number of agencies under one roof.

Bush last week asked Gibbons and three other lawmakers to lead an effort in the House to seek approval for Bush's more sweeping plan. The president wants the new department operating by the beginning of next year.

Gibbons testified alongside five other House and Senate lawmakers, several of whom said Congress should work to approve Bush's plan by Sept. 11, although Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said that date may be too ambitious.

Gibbons said Congress faced huge challenges as it sifts through Bush's proposal, including how the new department would get information from the FBI and CIA, which would remain separate agencies outside the new department.

Lawmakers also must determine how the new department would get information to local responders quickly, Gibbons said.

Gibbons' legislation differs from Bush's plan in that Gibbons calls for a White House Homeland Security Director, in addition to the new secretary. The director would act as a kind of counterterrorism czar and adviser to the president, and would have budget power over the new department.

Gibbons said the nation needs a new department under one roof with a common focus, despite concerns that it would only create more bureaucracy. He said Intelligence panel lawmakers had heard recent testimony that had a recurring theme: agencies are not sharing information.

"Those in charge of connecting the dots do not always get the dots connected to form a complete picture," Gibbons said.

Gibbons is also a member of a joint House-Senate committee investigating pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures. Much of that panel's focus is on the FBI and CIA, which would not be directly affected by the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security.

Gibbons, 57, a former combat and commercial pilot, is a member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.

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