[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         9/11 COMMISSION REPORT

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I know the minority leader is kindly 
waiting, but let me say one other thing. We are going to be presented--
the press has already been presented--the 9/11 Commission report. I do 
not have one in my office. I have to go read about it in the New York 
Times. Thank you, Commission, for being so public that you will not 
even inform those of us who created you, but we understand they are 
going to recommend the creation of a czar-like or individual director 
of intelligence that coordinates all of the agencies.
  I have one comment on that only because I have not seen the report, 
and I do not know that the minority leader has either--we have not had 
a full opportunity to read it--let us proceed with caution. We have 
done a great deal of work since 9/11 now to bring these institutions 
together to coordinate intelligence. We are better off than we were 
pre-9/11.
  I am not sure that I want a Cabinet level, politicized director of 
intelligence for our country. I do not know that it is a good idea to 
politicize that. If we put them in a Cabinet level position, by the 
character of that position we have politicized intelligence. 
Intelligence should not be politicized. It ought to be factual. And we 
now know we have had a problem with the facts, but it wasn't just our 
intelligence community; it was intelligence communities around the 
world. Bad information makes bad information makes bad reports and can 
produce bad decisions.
  Intelligence is critical and it needs to be of the highest order. I 
am not suggesting we don't have a top level coordinator/director, but 
let us think long about the idea of politicizing that person. We have 
seen the Directors of the FBI stay on through Republican and Democrat 
administrations throughout history--not always but many times. It 
brought quality and uniformity to that law enforcement community. It 
did not politicize it. It is every bit if not more important today, 
with the war on terrorism, that we build a quality structure, that the 
information be of the first order, and that it never ever could be 
suggested or run the test of, well, that person is a political person, 
that person was appointed because he was a political friend. That is my 
only caution today, in a preliminary thought, until we get the report 
and see the facts and the evidence. And I do wish the Commission would 
let us have the report before they give it to the New York Times. It 
probably would be a bit more appropriate and give us an opportunity to 
speak factually and knowledgeably about it.
  I thank you, Mr. President. The minority leader has been kind and 
patient, and I yield the floor.

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