Combating Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction

Findings of the Aspin-Brown and Jeremiah CommissionsThe Aspin-Brown Commission (formally the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities ofthe United States Intelligence Community), chartered in 1994 to review Americanintelligence, made a number of points that bear on this Commission’s findings. Althoughthe Intelligence Community makes a vital contribution to U.S. national security through itsmission of countering WMD proliferation, the Aspin-Brown report argued that:• intelligence agencies need better direction from the policy level regardingthe roles they perform and what they collect and analyze;• intelligence must be integrated with other functions of the government, suchas law enforcement, to achieve shared objectives;• present organizational arrangements do not provide sufficiently strongcentral direction, as authority is dispersed and administrative barriersimpede cooperation; and77