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WASHINGTON - A former CIA director urged basic changes Tuesday in the ways the government collects and analyzes information on terrorist threats, but another former director cautioned such "major surgery" might do more short-term harm than good.
The difference of opinion between John Deutch, intelligence director in 1995-1996, and James Schlesinger, director in 1973, mirrored a debate that has continued since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Testifying before the independent commission studying the attacks, Deutch said international terrorism has blurred the traditional separation of powers between the FBI, as domestic law enforcer, and the CIA, as foreign intelligence gatherer.
"In my judgment, significant change is required," Deutch said. "That separation in foreign and domestic intelligence collection places limits . . . that I believe have to be removed in order to better combat the terrorist threats."
Deutch offered a two-part solution likely to meet significant resistance.
He would establish a new domestic intelligence service, which would take over some authority now vested in the FBI. He would strengthen the position of director of central intelligence by giving that person authority over planning and budgeting for intelligence activities carried out by agencies of the Defense Department.
Deutch, a professor of chemistry at MIT, said good people have tried hard to get results from the current decentralized system. "It's just set up wrong," he said.
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which held the hearing as part of its investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks, is considering whether to recommend changes to the U.S. intelligence apparatus that would go well beyond actions by the Bush administration.
Possible recommendations include creating a director of national security, which some in Congress have advocated for more than year, and creating a domestic spy agency similar to Britain's covert MI5, which monitors and disrupts activities of its targets but cannot arrest them.
FBI director Robert Mueller opposes the idea of an American MI5, and after visiting Britain last year, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said he doubted the Bush administration would create a similar agency because MI5's powers would be unacceptable under the U.S. Constitution.
Schlesinger cautioned the commission against dramatic realignment.
"No one would question that management can always be improved, but major organizational change is not the salvation," said Schlesinger, chairman of the MITRE Corp. He suggested paying more attention to recruiting, training and motivating people.