Tenet, Dems rip intelligence reform plan

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- A former CIA director and senate Democrats Monday ripped the intelligence reform proposal put forward by the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"This proposal reflects a dangerous misunderstanding of the business of intelligence," George Tenet, who retired as CIA director last month, said in a statement.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee, accused his GOP counterpart, Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., of "squander(ing) the momentum we achieved last month" when the panel released a unanimous, bipartisan report on Iraq pre-war intelligence.

Rockefeller said it was regrettable Roberts "did not afford me or any Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee an opportunity to work with him in drafting the proposal."

Roberts' proposal -- which he unveiled during the weekend -- goes even further than reforms suggested by the Sept. 11 Commission.

Roberts' plan would break the CIA into three parts: an operational National Clandestine Service, an analytical Office of National Assessments and an Office of Technical Support.

All three parts would be placed under the control of a new spy chief, the national intelligence director, who would also take over the human intelligence service of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the three agencies -- currently in the Pentagon -- that build and run the nation's spy satellites and listening posts.