Word: scowcrofts
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...White House been sitting on a credible proposal for serious intelligence reform for more than two years? Knowledgeable government sources say that a classified March 2002 report from GOP foreign policy eminence Brent Scowcroft, produced for President Bush, proposed reforms similar to key recommendations of the 9/11 commission. Among them: making the current position of Director of Central Intelligence into the national intelligence czar, with authority over a separate CIA director and all or most of the $40 billion annual intelligence budget. One government source said the document contains little sensitive national security information and that its secret status...
...pressure is now building on the President to make Scowcroft?s report public, or at least show it to lawmakers considering major intelligence reforms in the wake of the hard-hitting 9/11 commission report. At a hearing last week, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts said he had recently ?begged [Scowcroft] on hands and knees to release the report? to the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services panels. Roberts indicated that Scowcroft, who chairs the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, said that decision was up to Bush. Roberts hopes to call Scowcroft to appear before the committee, at least...
Will the report lead to any changes? President Bush called the report "useful" and has said he is "open for suggestions" on intelligence reform. But the President already shelved an overhaul plan by former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft after Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld objected to it. And the report put off until after the November election any examination of whether the faulty intelligence came about because of White House pressure. "It's designed to protect the Administration and put all the blame on the intelligence community," said a senior Republican. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has said he wants...
Administration officials credit Blackwill with masterminding the U.N.'s return to the country, steering the occupation toward June 30 and brokering the formation of the interim Iraqi government with U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. "He's not known for his people skills," says his former boss Brent Scowcroft. "But if you want talent, raw talent to get the job done, he is terrific...
Though he shuns the spotlight, Blackwill makes his presence felt. He was Rice's boss in the first Bush Administration, working on Russia policy under then National Security Adviser Scowcroft. "We used to argue frequently," says Scowcroft, "and he'd leave the office saying 'Remember, you don't pay me to agree with you. You pay me for my opinions.'" In 2000 Rice brought Blackwill into the team of "Vulcans," who tutored President George W. Bush on foreign and national-security policy during the campaign. But though the rest of that team ended up with coveted jobs, Blackwill...