Intelligence

Joint Intelligence Center Is Urged

Joint Intelligence Center Is Urged (washingtonpost.com)

Rep. Wolf Says Information Should Be Shared Globally to Fight Terror
By Douglas Farah and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 21, 2003; Page A25
Lack of cooperation between the United States and its European allies has greatly hindered the war on terror, and some congressional leaders are asking the United States to take the lead in establishing a joint intelligence center modeled on NATO to share information on terrorist money and movements.

In a letter last week to Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) said that "it is critical for national law enforcement agencies to begin sharing law enforcement assets on a global basis, which does not currently exist. International cooperation and information sharing among law enforcement agencies is the next step in addressing terrorism."

Wolf, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FBI budget, said the formal coalition "would allow for the FBI and its counterparts around the world to work hand in hand and more easily share information about potential terrorists and terrorist threats."

Among the examples cited by Wolf and others are the failure to share international terrorist watch lists, separate files that are not shared on suspected terrorists and the lack of a common database on suspected terrorist financial entities and transactions.

The proposal advocated by Wolf, known as an FBI ally in Congress, comes at a time when the FBI continues to fend off suggestions from some politicians and policymakers that it should be stripped of its counterterrorism and counterintelligence duties, which would be transferred to a separate domestic intelligence agency akin to Britain's MI5.

An independent panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has signaled that it may suggest a similar reform. In an interview, Wolf said that despite his support of the FBI, he believes there should be a separate counterterrorism agency and expects it to be created eventually.

Wolf's proposal to establish a joint intelligence center, for which he has scheduled hearings in February, has gained some support among Democrats and Republicans. Congressional aides familiar with the concerns about U.S.-European intelligence sharing said that although many legislators are aware of the problem and want to take action, no consensus has emerged on a remedy.

Pasquale J. "Pat" D'Amuro, head of the FBI's New York Field Office and former chief of counterterrorism and counterintelligence at headquarters here, said relationships between U.S. and European intelligence agencies have improved dramatically since the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We've always had pretty good relationships with sharing in Europe," D'Amuro said. "If you're talking about the Brits, it's always been good with the Brits, and things have gotten much better with other countries over the last couple years."

Although the FBI has legal attachés in most European capitals to act as liaison officials, Wolf and congressional staff aides interested in the matter said the new alliance would take cooperation to an institutional, permanent level.

"If we don't take cooperation to the next level, we will remain vulnerable," said one congressional aide involved in promoting the proposal. "We don't want it to be in Interpol, because too many countries sit there and too much information can leak. We want something where the information we have can be permanently put together with what our European allies have. It works in the military and NATO; we should be able to make it work with law enforcement and the war on terror."

The assessment of U.S. officials that cooperation is free and constant was disputed by several European intelligence officials, who said that although the FBI and CIA request information from European allies, they seldom receive anything from the U.S. counterparts.

"If you call sharing a one-way street, then we share information," one official said. "They want what we have immediately, and demand it. But if we ask for something, it can take months before we even get an initial reply."

Another European source said that when pursuing an investigation into the possible al Qaeda use of diamonds to buy weapons, European police officials waited at least two months for clearance to visit the United States. The clearance was given only after the intervention of a senior U.S. official, who expedited the matter.

"It is a matter, in part, of culture," one European source said. "They believe strongly in the need-to-know operational function, and they usually believe we don't need to know."

But U.S. and European intelligence officials said they were not sure a new organization, with its inevitable bureaucracy, would improve the situation significantly.

One U.S. intelligence official said creation of the Department of Homeland Security and various task forces since the Sept. 11 attacks has produced too much confusion.

"We don't need any more . . . organizations being created," the official said. "It's already a nightmare what's been created now. What we need is to just continue to apply the pressure and keep focused on improving relationships."

But Wolf's letter said that approach was not enough.

"Terrorism is an international problem," it said. "The international community cannot successfully stem the tide of terrorism without cooperating in the area of law enforcement."

December 29, 2003 at 12:33 AM in US | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home