Pentagon balking at Intel reform recommendations.

• Author: Pappalardo, Joe
• Position: Upfront

Pentagon officials are publicly questioning some of the recommendations made by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Among their concerns are the blurring lines between civilian and military intelligence, a shifting of responsibility for paramilitary operations from the Central Intelligence Agency in the Special Operations Command and the specter of slowing the flow of crucial data to front-line commanders.

Pentagon officials and many members of Congress support the commission's proposals, including the creation of the National Intelligence Director (NID) position and a new counterterrorism center to replace the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, but other suggestions are being met with skepticism.

"If we allow a rush to judgment to be dictated by the need to simply get this done during an election cycle, then I think we're going to make ourselves more vulnerable and cause the nation more harm," said Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC).

Hunter and other critics are following the lead of senior Pentagon officials, who simultaneously say they welcome some reforms, such as joint intelligence sharing between agencies, but balk at much of the departmental restructuring.

Stephen A. Cambone, the Pentagon's undersecretary for intelligence, suggested, "We need to back up a little bit and reconsider" the proposed changes because the intelligence demands of military and the civilian leadership are different.

The NID would oversee the entire U.S. intelligence community, including agencies currently under Pentagon control, such as the National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency.

Commission members are recommending the defense undersecretary for intelligence become a key deputy to the NID, charged with balancing the "the needs of the war fighter and the national policy-maker," according to a joint statement given to the HASC by commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton.

The lines between intelligence and operations are being more than blurred, they are being consolidated, Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, former commander of the 4th Infantry Division which fought in Iraq, noted to lawmakers. "Today, strategic and tactical intelligence [are] interwoven. They are no longer separate like they used to be," he said.

Some experts do not agree. "I see some pretty important...