Study proposes revamping US security system
WASHINGTON (AP) - July 29, 2008 The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated
Press, said frequent feuding and jurisdictional disputes among
Cabinet secretaries and other agency heads force the president to
spend too much time settling internal fights.
Time and money are wasted on duplicative and inefficient
actions, slowing down government responses to crises, the report
said.
The president and his top advisers focus on day-to-day crisis
management rather than long-term planning, "allowing problems to
escape presidential attention until they worsen and reach the
crisis level," said the report, to be issued later in the week.
The study, mandated by Congress, was undertaken by the Project
on National Security Reform. The research was conducted by more
than 300 national security experts from think tanks, universities,
federal agencies, law firms and corporations.
A final version with recommended reforms, including a proposal
for new security legislation, is expected to be issued in October.
"We will approach whoever is elected before the inauguration
and will be having discussions with campaign staffs between now and
the election," James R. Locher III, executive director of the
project, said in an interview.
"We will draft presidential directives that can be imposed by
the new president immediately," Locher said.
Thomas J. Pickering, a former career diplomat who served as U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement that the
findings would be valuable to the next president and to Congress.
"Our national security system is broken and needs fixing," he
said.
"Agencies need to cooperate rather than compete with each other
as they work to protect the United States from a broad range of new
dangers never imagined" when the national security system was
initiated in 1947, Pickering said.
Pickering, former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, and
former CIA director John McLaughlin were among 23 former senior
officials who oversaw the project and gave the findings their
approval.
Congress was not spared criticism.
"Protection of turf and power occurs in the committees of both
houses of Congress," the report said.
And national security is adversely affected by congressional
committees with overlapping jurisdictions, the report said.
"Congress can now look at the parts," Locher said. "It does
not have the ability to look at government as a whole in terms of
national security."