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View Full Version : New White House order bolsters intelligence chief's power




LEK
03-04-2008, 12:05 PM
Is there nothing left alone by the Executive branch?
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/01/america/Intelligence-Board.php


Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, an advocacy group, said the move appears to dilute the independent board's investigatory powers in favor of a member of the president's administration.

"It makes the new board subordinate to the (national intelligence director) in a way that the old board was not subordinate to the director of central intelligence," he said.

The White House disagrees.

The executive order also gives the president the power to hand pick the chairman and members of the board. Previously they were selected by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from its 16 members, all of whom are appointed by the president.

"The order seems to establish greater presidential control over the board," said Suzanne Spaulding, a former assistant CIA general counsel and national security expert now in private practice. "It is less independent. That is the president's prerogative. But it is a trade off. I think it reduces the credibility of the of the board to some degree."