[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13738]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              STATEMENT OF SMART SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, there are few images more glamorous in our 
popular culture than that of the debonair spy. There is a reason that 
James Bond movies have been audience favorites for more than 40 years. 
But this is one case where art does not even come close to imitating 
life.
  There is nothing romantic about the state of America's intelligence. 
It is a tired, rusty, bureaucratic, multi-headed beast that is letting 
down the American people. Fifteen different Federal Government agencies 
are a part of our intelligence apparatus, and that does not even 
include the ad hoc intelligence team the administration gathered to 
advance its phantom case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass 
destruction.
  Fifteen agencies. That is 15 chains of command, 15 unique 
institutional cultures, 15 fiefdoms. It is a recipe for disaster, for 
turf battles, and ego clashes which stand in the way of the most 
critical work imaginable: Keeping the American people safe.
  According to Bob Woodward's book, former CIA Director George Tenet 
told the President that he had a ``slam dunk'' case for war. In 
reality, Tenet could not get the different players on his own team to 
pass the ball to one another.
  Here is what I want to know: If organizing the hodgepodge Department 
of Homeland Security was so important that people were called 
unpatriotic for opposing it, then why is it not just as urgent to unite 
U.S. intelligence under a single umbrella?
  Earlier this week, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence 
considered H.R. 4104 introduced by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Harman), which would have restructured the intelligence community. This 
bill would have coordinated the 15 intelligence agencies, making them 
accountable to a single Director of National Intelligence. The bill 
further integrates the agencies by promoting information sharing and 
creating incentives for cooperation between them. But the Republicans 
on the committee shot this bill down.
  In the same meeting, the majority rejected an amendment to fully fund 
counterterrorism intelligence, instead providing only 25 percent of the 
additional funds that are needed. It is appalling that many of the same 
folks who were vigilant about keeping a tight lid on intelligence 
information have offered nothing more than a shrug at the news that 
Ahmad Chalabi revealed to the Iranians that he had intercepted their 
secret communication codes. It is unthinkable to me that on the heels 
of some of the most colossal and embarrassing intelligence failures in 
American history, the majority is eager to stick with the status quo.
  This is a situation that is crying out for reform. We failed to 
connect the dots that might have enabled us to intercept the 9/11 plot. 
Our Iraqi intelligence in the run-up to the war was based on mistakes, 
at best; outright deception, at worst. The administration wants to 
rewrite the Constitution to say who can marry whom, to give tax breaks 
to the Americans who need them the least, to read our e-mail and 
examine our library-borrowing habits, neither of which has anything to 
do with detaining terrorists, but when faced with a genuine problem, 
like the state of American intelligence, one that truly endangers the 
American people, they do not have the will to act.
  Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to act. I have introduced H. Con. Res. 
392, to create a SMART security platform for the 21st century. SMART 
stands for Sensible Multilateral American Response to Terrorism. SMART 
security treats war as an absolute last resort. It fights terrorism 
with stronger intelligence and multilateral partnerships. It 
aggressively invests in the development of impoverished nations. It 
controls the spread of weapons of mass destruction with a renewed 
commitment to nonproliferation. And to meet every one of its goals, 
SMART security will rely on a robust, efficient, integrated 
intelligence community.
  Until we get serious about overhauling U.S. intelligence, I fear that 
that very term, U.S. intelligence, may become an oxymoron.

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