Prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the correct answer to the question -- which among the following positions is responsible for coordinating the intelligence community -- would have been "A," the director of Central Intelligence. Following the terrorist attacks and the in-depth investigation into the reasons for the federal government's failure to detect al Qaeda's plans for the attacks and the steps taken by the terrorists to carry out those attacks by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the "9/11 Commission"), legislation was passed to restructure the intelligence community so as to allow for, and mandate, better coordination among the intelligence agencies that collectively comprise "the community."
Following the surprise attacks on U.S. military facilities at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, Congress conducted a series of hearings into the reasons for the government and the military's, mainly the Navy's, failure to detect the Japanese plans for that fateful attack. Among the reasons for that failure was the institutional reluctance among individual agencies to share secret information with other agencies. After the end of World War II, the Congress, working with the Truman Administration, formally established the Central Intelligence Agency to be the nation's principal centralized organ for the collection, analysis and dissemination of information. Thus was born the National Security Act of 1947, Section 102 of which established the position of Director of National Intelligence, the principal responsibilities of which would be the day-to-day operation of the newly-established Central Intelligence Agency and the coordination of efforts of the myriad intelligence agencies within the federal government. That section of the Act stated the following with respect to the responsibilities of the director of Central Intelligence:
"(d) For the purpose of coordinating the intelligence activities of the several Government departments and agencies in the interest of national security, it shall be the duty of the Agency, under the direction of the National Security Council—
"(1) to advise the National Security Council in matters concerning such intelligence activities of the Government departments and agencies as relate to national security;
"(2) to make recommendations to the National Security Council for the coordination of such intelligence activities of the departments and agencies of the Government as relate to the national security;..
"(e) To the extent recommended by the National Security Council and approved by the President, such intelligence of the departments and agencies of the Government, except as hereinafter provided, relating to the national security shall be open to the inspection of the Director of Central Intelligence . . ."
So, the position of director of Central Intelligence was created to both oversee the Central Intelligence Agency and to coordinate the activities of the other component agencies comprising the Intelligence Community. Unfortunately, inter-agency rivalries continued unabated, with those intelligence agencies that structurally fall under the Department of Defense, including the National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, the then-Defense Mapping Agency, and the intelligence branches of the individual military services all rejecting supervision and recommendations from the director of Central Intelligence, often appealing to sympathetic members of the House Armed Services Committee to help these Department of Defense agencies to retain their independence. [Note: this educator witnessed these efforts up-close while serving as military legislative assistant to a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee]
An additional factor that contributed to the intelligence community's failure to detect the plotting for and execution of the 9/11 attacks was the legal restrictions imposed upon the intelligence community and the Federal Bureau of Investigation following the revelations during the 1970s of domestic abuses by these organizations in monitoring and investigating left-wing political organizations. A major legislative outcome of the investigations into those abuses was the legal prohibition on the sharing of information between foreign intelligence agencies -- in effect, those that comprise most of the intelligence community -- and the F.B.I., which exists to enforce domestic laws and which collects, as part of its responsibilities, information on suspected criminals and terrorists. That legal prohibition was blamed for some of the failure of the intelligence community to put together the pieces of the puzzle that would have led to the prevention of the 9/11 attacks.
The result of these failures, as noted above, was the passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Subtitle A, Section 1011 of which established the position of the Director of National Intelligence. Section 1011 replaced the above provisions from the National Security Act with the following new provisions intended to strengthen the role of a single intelligence official to oversee and coordinate those efforts the failures of which helped lead to the devastation of September 11, 2001:
‘‘SEC. 102. (a) DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE.—
(1) There is a Director of National Intelligence who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Any individual nominated for appointment as Director of National Intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise.
‘‘(2) The Director of National Intelligence shall not be located within the Executive Office of the President.
‘‘(b) PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITY.—Subject to the authority, direction, and control of the President, the Director of National Intelligence shall— ‘‘(1) serve as head of the intelligence community; ‘‘(2) act as the principal adviser to the President, to the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to the national security; and ‘‘(3) consistent with section 1018 of the National Security Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, oversee and direct the implementation of the National Intelligence Program.
‘‘(c) PROHIBITION ON DUAL SERVICE.—The individual serving in the position of Director of National Intelligence shall not, while so serving, also serve as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency or as the head of any other element of the intelligence community." [Emphasis added]
In short, the position of director of National Intelligence was established to perform the work that was supposed to be performed by the director of Central Intelligence. There was a great deal of resistance on the part of the Central Intelligence Agency and on the part of the Department of Defense to these reforms. And, there is no question that these reforms would not have been necessary if the authorities of the original National Security Act of 1947 had been respected and enforced. That was not the case, however, so a new level of bureaucracy was created by Congress to perform the mission that hadn't been adequately performed in the past.
The answer to the question, in conclusion, then, is "B," the director of National Intelligence.
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