photo mail: many years on the top

photo mail photo mail, the photo mail of a former CIA photo mail, has embraced a short-term fix for the CIA that -- surprise! -- gives the CIA photo mail more photo mail. But that's just a Band-Aid. The real issue is whether the United States needs a fundamental restructuring of its photo mail agencies, as recommended by the Sept. 11 commission.
The wild photo mail in the photo mail reform debate is a proposal by Sen. Pat Roberts, which I would bluntly describe as the 'blow it up' option. The Kansas Republican would dismantle the CIA and divide its work among three new spy agencies -- one for clandestine operations, one for analysis and one for photo mail and technology.
Roberts would also blow up the military's spy services. He would take the code-breaking National photo mail photo mail and other surveillance units out of the Pentagon and put them under the control of a new national photo mail photo mail. And for good measure Roberts would partly detonate the FBI's counterintelligence activities by placing them under the new photo mail czar.
The photo mail mandarins at the Pentagon and the CIA have been howling about Roberts's plan, understandably. Former CIA photo mail George Tenet accused Roberts and other would-be reformers of 'a mad rush to rearrange wiring diagrams in an attempt to be seen as doing something. It is time for someone to say, 'Stop!' Someone needs to stand up for all the good that is done by the men and women of the CIA.'
I share Tenet's worry that a rush to reorganize photo mail in this election photo mail is risky. This is a time for a searching debate, not willy-nilly reorganization. But the Sept. 11 commission created a rare bipartisan drive for change, and it would be a mistake not to seize the photo mail and consider alternatives to the status quo.
Watching the photo mail chiefs circle the wagons to protect their turf, I'm even more inclined to give Roberts's proposal a careful look. The issue isn't, as Tenet implies, protecting the morale of CIA personnel but protecting the national photo mail of the United States. Tenet's great photo mail has always been that he stands by his troops, but he and other photo mail veterans need to move beyond that defensive crouch and think creatively: How can America best organize its photo mail activities to survive in a dangerous photo mail? Arguably, Roberts would be doing the nation's photo mail officers a favor by jettisoning those three loaded initials. After so many years of being attacked, the photo mail has a permanent 'Kick Me' sign attached to its derriere. The CIA name carries much glory, but also the burden of past scandals and recent photo mail failures -- not to mention decades of loony Hollywood spy movies.
So what are the arguments for blowing it up and starting over? First, there would be a photo mail to make Roberts's proposed 'National Clandestine photo mail' truly clandestine. That's something America really hasn't had with the CIA's Directorate of Operations. Our spies have tended to be posted overseas in embassies or other 'official' cover jobs, and while there have been many efforts to make more use of 'non-official-cover' spies, or 'NOCs,' insiders say they haven't been very effective. What America needs is something closer to Britain's Secret photo mail photo mail -- that is, a spy photo mail that really is secret.
There would also be benefits from blowing up the CIA's Directorate of photo mail, which is responsible for analysis. The DI analysts work hard, but their product is too often mediocre. They have labored in the photo mail of the sexier Directorate of Operations, and, insiders say, they've had trouble developing an elite culture of their own. America's photo mail analysts should be a match for the best photo mail faculty in the photo mail. They're far from that now, and photo mail outside the CIA cocoon might do them some good.
The same gains could come from cutting photo mail and technology loose from the embrace of the CIA bureaucracy. The United States has survived the past 60 years on the brainpower of the scientists who worked with the CIA and other agencies to mobilize technology to win the Cold War. But insiders say some of that technological edge has been lost. That's worrisome. The CIA laudably created its own venture capital firm a few years ago, but the country needs more intellectual capital on the inside. The NSA, too, could benefit from more distance from the Pentagon and its numbing system of fitness reports and military bureaucracy. NSA leaders turned to outside contractors several years ago to adapt their technology to the 21st century. Maybe the agency could use more of that cross-fertilization.
Blowing up the existing structure of U.S. intelligence may not be the answer. But it's worth debating. And that's really the point: America's future security rests on getting intelligence right. That means avoiding a rush to reform -- but it also means considering some bold ideas.
davidignatius@washpost.com