WASHINGTON A top CIA manager who remains undercover
will soon oversee the traditional human spying activities for the entire
intelligence community, a new position created in the post-Sept. 11
intelligence reforms.
Publicly, he is referred to simply as "Jose," said U.S. officials, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan's full details had yet to
be released.
Jose's posting as head of the new National Clandestine Service ends
weeks of debate over whether the CIA would retain its role as the primary
agency responsible for traditional human spywork, as an increasing number
of U.S. national security agencies take on this type of work.
He'll now broadly coordinate operations for the FBI, Defense Department
and other agencies involved in human intelligence, or the information
gathered by people, rather than by technical means.
Jose now serves as the director of the CIA's clandestine service, which
handles the agency's human intelligence gathering.
"This is another positive step in building an Intelligence Community
that is more unified, coordinated and effective," National Intelligence
Director John Negroponte said in a statement about the new service
Thursday.
Forming a National Clandestine Service was one of more than 70
recommendations from President Bush's commission on weapons of mass
destruction, which released a bruising report in March about the current
capabilities of the 15 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence
community.
The report concluded that the "toughest targets remain largely
impenetrable" to human spying operations.
CIA Director Porter Goss drafted a plan that would place the National
Clandestine Service under his chain of command. The plan's acceptance is
viewed as a victory for the CIA.
Intelligence veterans have said for months that any arrangement that
somehow undermined the CIA's role as the top producer of human
intelligence would hurt the agency's clout and deepen problems with agency
morale.
In a statement, Goss said the decision represents "an _expression_ of
confidence in the CIA" from Bush and Negroponte. "No agency has greater
skill and experience in this difficult, complex, and utterly vital
discipline of intelligence," Goss said.
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