WASHINGTON - President Bush has broadened the power of the nation's spy chief, the White House announced yesterday, drawing measured praise from intelligence analysts and complaints from members of Congress who said they were not consulted.
In strengthening the role of the director of national intelligence, Bush reduced the authority of the CIA in some areas. Congress created the intelligence director's job after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to help coordinate all of the nation's spying operations, but the director's effectiveness has been hampered by interagency power struggles and a lack of control over spending.
Bush has issued a new executive order, made public by the White House, revising rules issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 that govern the operation of the federal intelligence apparatus.
The Bush order gives the director explicit authority, according to the White House, to "participate more fully" in the hiring and firing of key intelligence personnel. Among the most significant challenges for the director has been creating lines of authority among the CIA, the FBI, the Defense Department and more than a dozen other intelligence agencies.
"I think you have to have one boss," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Baltimore County Democrat and member of the House Intelligence Committee.
The Bush order also authorizes the intelligence director, Mike McConnell, to strike cooperative deals with foreign governments, a function previously held by the CIA. The CIA would still carry out information-gathering.
"It sets up a system of cooperation and networking between different agencies" and "legitimizes what we need to do" on intelligence issues, Ruppersberger said.
Senior White House officials said the order - signed by the president Wednesday evening - sharpens areas in which McConnell "thought clarifications were necessary," and that the intelligence chief was "fully satisfied" with the outcome of the lengthy review of intelligence operations.
Intelligence analysts said the new rules will strengthen McConnell's ability to provide the president with a balanced view on the quality of information about national security topics.
The order also puts the nation's intelligence chief in a better position to spearhead reforms, such as better information-sharing, which investigations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks concluded was a major problem among the country's 16 intelligence agencies, analysts said.
