The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

360 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
when the terrorists have created more problems for their co-religionists
than they do for us. We can contribute to that struggle, but it has to be
won internally, and the Muslim world’s decline will never be reversed or
even arrested as long as so much of Islam discriminates against the 50
percent of its population that is female. Education is a huge part of the
war against terrorism.”
of ALL the RecoMMendAtions made by the 9/11 Commission, none was
more imperative than the admonition to make structural changes in intelligence
gathering and sharing. To paraphrase the Peter Principle, in a
huge government hierarchy every agency tends to protect its turf at the
risk of incompetence.
The commission concluded that the job of Director of Central Intelligence
should be scrapped. Downgraded was another way to put it. (George
Tenet announced his resignation before the final report was released.)
The commission believed it was impractical and counterproductive for
the CIA chief to do double duty. He should be strictly an agency manager,
reporting to a new supreme spymaster. The cabinet-level Director
of National Intelligence would also oversee America’s other intelligencegathering
agencies, including the FBI’s National Security Branch, Homeland
Security’s threat analysts, the National Security Agency and the
Defense Intelligence Agency.
The commission also called for a new National Counterterrorism
Center to integrate information on terrorist threats. It was crucial for the
new director to have real power, including budget and personnel authority.
Otherwise, the outcome would be just another layer of bureaucracy.
The turf wars would continue.
it hAd Been A Long hot suMMeR. Literally and figuratively. With both
national conventions imminent, the political atmosphere was supercharged
as the commission’s final report was released on July 22, 2004.
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, Bush’s challenger, had been warning
that the White House would try to spin the report to blame Democrats for
the nation’s intelligence snafus. The White House returned fire with its
own flurry of e-mails to reporters and editorial writers. 9
Flanked by Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and other administration notables,
Bush gave the 9/11 report the full Rose Garden photo-op treatment. By
executive order, he created the counterterrorism center, but balked at cabinet-level
status for the new Director of National Intelligence. The director
would have “significant input” but not the final say. Bush was also