Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

INTELLIGENCE REFORM AND TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT OF 2004 • 275law by President George W. Bush on 17 December 2004. This actimplemented certain recommendations of the National Commissionto Study the Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (moregenerally known as the 9/11 Commission) in its report issued on22 July 2004. The act created a new office of Director of NationalIntelligence (DNI) responsible for overseeing and coordinating theanalysis and operations of the roughly 16 U.S. agencies involvedin the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence. That functionhad previously been the duty of the Director of Central Intelligence(DCI) under the National Security Act of 1947, but the 9/11 Commissionbelieved that since the DCI was also the head of the CentralIntelligence Agency (CIA), it would be difficult for his office to alsooversee and coordinate the intelligence activities of the other 15 bodiesforming the U.S. intelligence community. Under this act the DCInow reports to the DNI rather than directly to the U.S. president.The act also established the National Counterterrorism Center(NCTC) to assume the functions of the Terrorism Threat IntegrationCenter created by President Bush on 1 May 2003 to analyze foreignterrorism intelligence and to provide support for U.S. counterterrorismefforts using all available information technology. The actmandated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) improve itsintelligence capabilities and develop and maintain a national intelligenceworkforce with analytical specializations and proficiencies inlinguistic skills and cultural knowledge to allow the FBI to becomemore effective in its antiterrorism mission. Section 6001 of the actamends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA)to redefine “agent of a foreign power” to include “any person whoengages in international terrorism or activities in preparation for suchterrorism,” which no longer requires that the agent be connected to aspecific national government.The intention of the act was to implement the recommendations ofthe 9/11 Commission, aimed at preventing any recurrence of attackssimilar to the World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks of September11, 2001, and the U.S. Congress wrote and passed the legislationwith the same alacrity with which it passed the USA Patriot Actof 2001. This has led to criticisms by some analysts and observers,among them Richard A. Posner, a judge of the U.S. Court of Appealsfor the 7th Circuit, that the act attempts to solve and simplify complexissues of coordinating domestic law enforcement, counterterrorism,