House: More $$ For Intelligence

The House of Representatives, aiming at preventing another Sept. 11 style attack, has approved the biggest funding increase since the Cold War for U.S. spy agencies.

By voice vote, the House Thursday passed the intelligence-spending bill for fiscal year 2003 that starts Oct. 1. The Senate was expected to vote on its version next week; then differences between the two measures must be ironed out.

Lawmakers called the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks that killed about 3,000 people a huge intelligence failure that highlighted the shortcomings in U.S. spy operations.

"It unfortunately proved our worst fears, that the nation's intelligence community was not sufficiently robust or positioned to provide the first line of defense that we need," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, a Florida Republican, said. "The price was much too high."

The House bill includes a proposal to establish a separate independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks, a measure opposed by the White House and many Republicans.

"The events of 9/11 may not have been absolutely preventable, but mistakes were made, failures were made, there were gaps and cracks that the snakes crawled through on 9/11 and we intend to fix them and to close those gaps," Rep. Tim Roemer, an Indiana Democrat, said.

The House and Senate intelligence committees are already conducting a joint inquiry into Sept. 11 failures and plan to make recommendations when it is completed by early next year.

The amount of U.S. spending on intelligence is classified, but lawmakers said the bill, which covers 13 intelligence agencies, including the CIA and National Security Agency, included a sizable increase.

The House bill would give spy agencies "the largest one-year increase in funding, on a percentage basis, in at least the last two decades," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee.

"Much of this increase is directly attributable to the September 11th attacks," she added.

A congressional aide told reporters the House bill increased intelligence funding by about 25 percent over the roughly $30 billion appropriated the previous year.

"The funding recommended by this bill should make it harder to undertake a successful future terrorist attack like those conducted on September 11," Pelosi said.

Intelligence agencies were sharply criticized in the wake of Sept. 11 for missed clues, not sharing information, having outdated equipment, and a lack of proficiency in languages needed for the war on terrorism.

Lawmakers said the legislation sought to increase the recruiting of foreign spies close to extremist groups, broaden language skills, improve analysis of the information gathered to make it more useful for policymakers and strengthen technical spying capabilities.

One provision requires the Secretary of Defense to assess the feasibility of establishing a military-style Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps of U.S. citizens fluent in languages needed for intelligence efforts, who would be willing to respond when their services were required.

The CIA has been criticized for not penetrating groups like al Qaeda, relying too much on information from foreign intelligence agencies, and having a culture that turned increasingly risk-averse in recent years. The United States blames al Qaeda for the Sept. 11 attacks.

"There were not and still are not enough CIA agents on the streets of the world collecting against our enemies," Rep. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, said.

The NSA's eavesdropping capabilities on electronic communications worldwide also needed retooling, he said.

Pelosi said intelligence agencies had not been quick enough to recognize the changes in tactics required "to shift from dealing with a fixed target like the Soviet Union, to more nimble targets like weapons proliferation or terrorism."

Goss said the bill emphasized getting back to basics.

"Often, over the last decade especially, many have gotten overly enamored with technology and finding ways to collect data with the least amount of risk -- the intelligence version I suppose of the no casualties policy," he said.

"The way to gain the most vital information -- plans and intentions of the enemy, what they are actually thinking of doing -- is more often than not to be physically close to the target," Goss said. "This involves taking risks both in terms of who you may have to work with and in terms of, frankly, potential loss of life."

Lawmakers said the legislation would not fix all intelligence shortcomings and more in-depth structural reforms needed to be addressed in the future.