posted 02-03-2004 10:05 AM            

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More Rumblings on Domestic Intelligence Move

Washington Post

http://www.prisonplanet.com/020204domesticintel.html

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a growing number of lawmakers, not to mention a few officials within the administration, began to argue that the United States might benefit from having its own domestic intelligence service, like Great Britain's famous MI5. At the very least, they said, a new full-blown intelligence agency should be included as part of the new Department of Homeland Security.

Folks at the FBI were not amused. The powerful bureau succeeded in quashing such talk rather quickly. The Bush administration came up with its own hybrid -- the Terrorist Threat Integration Center -- and that was that.

Until last week, that is, when Homeland Security Deputy Secretary James M. Loy gave a candid assessment to a member of the Sept. 11 commission, former Navy secretary John F. Lehman, who asked him, "Where do you think domestic intelligence should reside?" "My thought is that eventually, in a perfect system, domestic intelligence probably ought to be internalized in the department," Loy responded, although he conceded "that may be a while coming."