With pre-Sept 11th intelligence failures an issue, President George W. Bush vowed today his proposed Department of Homeland Security would create a "single daily picture" of threats against the United States.
The United States currently relies on intelligence from the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency and various other agencies to determine if there is a threat of attack, but those organisations do not always share information with each other.
A dramatic example was the FBI's failure to connect a July memo by an agent in Phoenix concerned about Middle Eastern men possibly connected to Osama bin Laden taking flight lessons in the United States to the August arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui in Minnesota, who authorities now suspect had intended to be a hijacker.
The new Department of Homeland Security, if approved by Congress, would include an intelligence clearinghouse that would analyse data from all agencies.
"This new department will review intelligence and law enforcement information from all agencies of government, and produce a single daily picture of threats against our homeland," Mr Bush said.
President Bush’s plans come as congressional hearings on intelligence lapses before the Sept. 11 attacks are under way.
FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that layers of bureaucracy and an attitude of careerism were hurting the FBI.
The Minnesota-based agent stunned the FBI last month with a 13-page letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller questioning his handling of information and accusing FBI headquarters of hampering field agents from fully investigating Moussaoui.