Bush intelligence pick stresses domestic security
Source: Reuters
(New throughout) By David Morgan WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's nominee for intelligence chief said on Thursday he would focus on terrorism threats inside U.S. borders and confront U.S. intelligence shortcomings in Iraq. Pressed by Senate Democrats who have bristled at many of Bush's post-Sept. 11 security policies, retired Navy Adm. Mike McConnell also pledged to keep Congress informed of any misuse of intelligence. "I believe that the first calling of an intelligence officer is to ... speak truth to power," McConnell told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at his confirmation hearing. If confirmed by the full Senate, McConnell would become the second U.S. director of national intelligence, overseeing 16 agencies. His predecessor, career diplomat John Negroponte, has been nominated to take the No. 2 position at the State Department. Democrats pressed McConnell for assurances he would fend off political pressure to promote the kind of faulty intelligence critics say the Bush administration used to justify the Iraq war. "If I was aware that anyone was using information inappropriately," McConnell said, "I would tell all of those responsible for this process what the situation was. And in the role of this committee for oversight, you would be a part of that process, to be informed." Several Republican and Democratic senators said they would vote to recommend McConnell's confirmation to the Senate. "THINK DOMESTICALLY" A career military intelligence officer who headed the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996, McConnell said he would raise the priority of domestic security to prevent another Sept. 11-scale attack. "We are trained for years to think external, foreign," said McConnell, who appeared to endorse the use of large scale data-mining operations to locate militants and their networks. "This ability to think domestically is, I believe, one of the biggest challenges," he added. "With the terrorists that are plotting today to carry out terrorist acts, they're going to try to do it internal to the United States." McConnell, 63, who rose to prominence in the administration of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, spoke a day after the Justice Department allowed selected members of Congress to see secret documents that authorized Bush's newly revised domestic spying program. An earlier program overseen by NSA caused an uproar because it monitored international telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining court warrants. Lawmakers urged McConnell to place a top priority on improving U.S. intelligence in Iraq, which the Iraq Study Group said has failed to understand the Sunni insurgents or Shi'ite militias nearly four years after the 2003 invasion. As a remedy, McConnell said he favored scrapping security restrictions that prevent spy agencies from hiring first-generation Americans who know the languages, cultures and religions of the Muslim world. Democrats and Republicans also complained that the administration has ignored congressional requests for information on Iran intelligence, budgets and the espionage community's reliance on private contractors. McConnell said he would work with them. "I will consult with you often, I will seek your counsel and I will take it seriously," he said.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
