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Change the CIA? Let's take a closer (and easier to understand) look at the details Paul Ryan
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Senator 2: They certainly have. What should we do about it? S1: How about we get rid of them? S2: Get rid of them? That would make our intelligence even worse! S1: No, no. We wouldn't do away with them, we'd just rearrange them and make it seem like we're starting with a clean slate. Instead of the CIA, we could call the agency "National Intelligence". S2: So it would be the same CIA people as before, just with a new name? S1: That's definitely the main part. The CIA is bad in people's eyes, because the White House used them as a scapegoat for 9/11, but the "National Intelligence" agency will be considered the new hope for keeping our country safe. S2: Even though it's the same people. S1: Right! But we can change some staff positions around, too. Here, take a look at the plan I drew up. First we'll remove the CIA Director and replace him with a "National Intelligence Director", whose job will essentially be the same. Then we'll add four "Assistant National Intelligence Directors" underneath him, and have all the different CIA departments report to the assistants. S2: But won't that hinder the flow of information? I mean, you're essentially just adding another layer of people for information to go through before it gets to the main director. S1: I dunno. We can just say it's to take pressure off the main director. He'll only have four assistant directors to deal with, rather than every single CIA department. People will buy that. S2: But that wasn't the problem in the first place. The problem was the CIA and FBI weren't sharing information. The way you have it set up, the information still isn't shared any better. In fact, all it does is make the CIA unable to share with its own departments. You have the CIA's three main departments - "Operations", "Intelligence", and "Science and Technology" - working separately, with different assistant directors to report to. S1: Well . . . S2: And you also have the National Reconnaissance Office, which used to report directly to the Pentagon, reporting to one of the assistant directors. The NRO operates spy satellites. Why would you make such important information go through an assistant director before getting where it needs to go? S1: Um . . . S2: And you also have the same setup with three other departments - the National Security Agency, which intercepts electronic signals; the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes satellite photos; and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which handles human intelligence. Those three groups also collect very important information. Why would you make information that important go through an assistant director? S1: Yeah . . . S2: And then you added more intelligence units and an assistant director underneath the Defense Secretary. That separates the intelligence even more. You have a few nice ideas in here, but as a whole, honestly, what were you thinking? S1: Hey, I have the FBI's counterintelligence and counterterrorism departments working with some CIA departments. That's what people want, isn't it? People want the CIA and FBI sharing information, don't they? S2: Yes, but you're doing it with only one tiny part of each agency. If you want the CIA and FBI to share information fully, it would be best to disassemble both agencies and find the best way to rebuild them. It wouldn't be easy, but it would be much more stable than just throwing together a half-assed plan that might or might not work. S1: Okay, okay! Look, my plan could hurt things, but what if it actually works? You can't prove it won't work. S2: That's true, but you can't prove it will work, and this move has the ability to cause a lot of damage to our nation's intelligence efforts. It's not worth the chance. The CIA has explained many times how their intelligence work has improved since 9/11. We shouldn't risk damage when things are improving, and will likely continue to improve.
S1: I'm willing to take that risk. And do you know why? Because no matter how badly it turns out, I'll end up looking good and getting re-elected simply because I made an effort. And you know what? This idea is going to be approved by a landslide, by both Republicans and Democrats, for the same exact reason.
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