Intelligence Gathering

HOUSE VOTES FOR MORE SPY AID AND TO PULL IN REINS ON INQUIRY

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 -- The House today approved a significant infusion of
new spending for the nation's intelligence agencies, while backing away
from a wide-ranging independent inquiry into the performance of the
government leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The legislation on intelligence programs was overwhelmingly approved by
voice vote, with speaker after speaker saying the Central Intelligence
Agency and related agencies had to change their operations significantly to
grapple with the terrorist threat.

"No one can seriously doubt that we need the best possible intelligence to
prosper and be safe at home and abroad," said Representative Porter J.
Goss, the Florida Republican who is chairman of the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence.

In a sign of the change in the national mood since Sept. 11, the bill would
rescind restrictions on the hiring of unsavory foreign agents.
Representative Doug Bereuter, Republican of Nebraska, said the
restrictions, enacted in 1995 to rein in the recruitment of sources who had
violated human rights, had had a "chilling effect" on the use of agents who
could be effective in the battle against drugs and terrorism.

Mr. Bereuter predicted that "to break the back of the Al Qaeda terrorist
network, we will have to recruit individuals who are influential members of
Al Qaeda who have committed acts of terror."

House members of both parties described an urgent need to change the
culture of agencies that grew out of the long struggle with the Soviet Union.

"A community built on cold war priorities was ill prepared to meet the
challenges of the 21st century," said Representative Jane Harman, Democrat
of California. "On Sept. 11 everything and everyone changed."

But just days after the intelligence committee included in the bill an
independent commission with subpoena powers that would be empowered to
investigate the government's inability to forecast or prevent the attacks,
Republicans moved to scale back the commission's powers and mission. Many
said that as the nation braced for a long struggle against terrorism it was
not a time to cast blame.

Mr. Goss proposed an amendment, which passed by voice vote, to strip the
commission of subpoena powers and the right to grant immunity, and change
its focus to an examination of structural impediments to the collection,
analysis and sharing of intelligence information.

The amendment also said that the commission would have eight members, fewer
than the 10 originally proposed, and be made up of people with backgrounds
in federal law enforcement or intelligence activities.

Mr. Goss said that by looking forward to how procedures could be changed,
the commission would "focus on the future" and "get away from the blame
game." His amendment prompted the first partisan exchanges of the debate.

Democrats, who offered their own amendment, continued to push for a
commission that would examine the events leading up to Sept. 11 and the
failure to stop the attacks. They also objected to restricting membership
to people with backgrounds in the government agencies under scrutiny.

"It is not about finger-pointing," said Representative Nancy Pelosi of
California, the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee. "Unless we
know how we got to where we are now, it seems it will be more difficult to
prevent these acts of terrorism."

But the Democrats did not push the dispute to a recorded vote.

While the size of the nation's intelligence budget is classified, it is
believed to be in the range of $27 billion to $30 billion, split among an
array of agencies. The bill would increase the intelligence budget by about
9 percent and would represent a 2 percent increase over what President Bush
had requested before the terror attacks.

The bill and an accompanying unclassified report place new emphasis on
spies, field workers and covert operatives -- as opposed to technology. It
puts a strong emphasis on better language training and makes the Coast
Guard part of the intelligence community.

C.I.A. officials have said that the restrictions on unsavory agents, which
required a top-level review of those with a history of human rights abuses,
had not stopped the fight on terrorism.

"We have never turned down a field request to recruit an asset in a
terrorist organization," said Bill Harlow, the chief C.I.A. spokesman. But
he said of the House decision to lift the restrictions and order new rules,
"if there's something that can be done to better the climate for the people
in the field, that's fine."