WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- A new congressional report expresses concern that the State Department's intelligence bureau may resist new reforms.
At the direction of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. State Department is shifting its attention increasingly to Iran. However, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the U.S. House of Representatives has expressed concern State's Intelligence and Research Bureau, also known as INR, will resist the changes.
INR is best known for its public dissent from the pre-war conventional wisdom that then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
In its authorization report on the roughly $44 billion in intelligence spending for 2007, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, or HPSCI, expressed concern that the Bureau of Intelligence and Research staff is too entrenched to adjust to the new emphasis on Iran.
"Such a major realignment of strategic priorities and of diplomats working on the 'front lines' may require a significant shift in intelligence support provided to department policymakers by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research," the report states.
The bureau is a small but widely admired office -- one of the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community.
"To its credit, INR analysts have worked on their areas of expertise longer, on average, than many of their colleagues in other agencies, and INR has one of the lowest personnel turnover rates in the Intelligence Community. However, the long tenure and low turnover of INR analysts may make it difficult for the Bureau to adjust to changing priorities," states the report.
Noting it has in previous years encouraged the State Department to expand INR's budget and size, the committee advises Rice to examine how INR funds and staff are allocated "to ensure that INR will be able to adequately support the Department's new strategic priorities."
"You have to wonder if this is an invitation to the secretary of state to purge INR," said John Prados, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive at George Washington University. "Unless the (House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) is recommending that (the) State (Department) increase its budget for the purpose of adding expertise, I would be highly dubious about this recommendation."
Then-INR director Tom Fingar told the Washington Monthly last year he would not want a large budget increase.
"I don't think so. Would I like more? Yeah, a little more. I don't know what I'd do with more than a 10 percent increase," he said. "I could use more flexible money to let someone travel to get their language skills back. But we're in good shape."
Fingar is now the official in charge of analysis for the new director of national intelligence.
Carl Ford, a former INR assistant secretary, told United Press International Thursday that if the House language is meant to increase the size of the office, he is in favor of it.
"I applaud (the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's) efforts to authorize more analyst positions for INR," Ford said. "(The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's) proposal would allow INR to plus up in those areas, such as Iran, identified by Secretary Rice as top priorities. Being so small to begin with makes it harder for INR, unlike others in the intelligence community, to move people around in response to changing circumstances."
Those changing circumstances are mostly dealing with Iran. Earlier in 2006, Rice initiated an overhaul of diplomatic and analytic operations regarding the threat posed by Tehran. She has established a new Office of Iranian Affairs and created Iran 'watcher' positions in Dubai, London, Frankfurt, and other cities.
Some intelligence experts expressed concern that the House language suggests INR will be shifted to focus on Iran at the expense of other equally important, if less urgent, areas of the world.
--
(Part 2 looks more closely at the background of the bureau.)
