Cooperation sought from agencies

Ex-defense secretary says bureaucracy, attitudes limit success of intelligence officials

10/04/2001

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News

SAN ANTONIO – After the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States can no longer accept gaps in intelligence resulting from bureaucratic sensitivities and excessive reliance on machines over human spies, former Defense Secretary William Cohen said Wednesday.

Coordination of the national response to the threat of terrorism under one Office of Homeland Security is a necessary step, Mr. Cohen said. What isn't known is whether the Cabinet-level post under Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge will have the authority and budget to realize change.

"We have a great capability to gather information. What we don't have is the coordination required to analyze and distribute that information in real time," Mr. Cohen said. "We've known about Osama bin Laden for a long time. But the bureaucratic and attitudinal limits of our intelligence agencies leaves gaps that must be filled."

Mr. Cohen spoke to reporters in San Antonio after a keynote address to the 47th annual meeting of the American Society for Industrial Security.

As head of the Office of Homeland Security, Mr. Ridge has the strength of being a close friend of the president, said Mr. Cohen, who served as defense secretary in the Clinton administration.

"He will office next door to the White House. In Washington, proximity counts," Mr. Cohen said. "But without sufficient budget and authority, it will be difficult if not impossible for him to coordinate the 46 agencies he'll be responsible for. We don't need another czar. Czars don't work."

Mr. Cohen acknowledged that the United States had attempted to take out Mr. bin Laden and his terrorist network in Afghanistan via a cruise missile attack in 1998. A year later, efforts to recruit Pakistani assistance to hunt down the terrorist leader also failed.

"We did a lot, and I wish we could have done more," Mr. Cohen said. "We didn't have the kind of cooperation that we're seeing now. We missed him, but not by much."

One positive that emerged from the destruction of the Sept. 11 attacks is the chance to forge new coalitions with nations across the world.

"We are forging intelligence-gathering relationships that never existed before," Mr. Cohen said. "Russia and other nations have pledged their support. They see now that terrorism is a world problem. When America is wounded, the entire world bleeds."

Can we destroy terrorism?

"We'll never know for sure. There are always people out there who hate America and want us destroyed," he said.

"Countering terrorism means we must be vigilant for the rest of our lives. The question is how much liberty are Americans willing to give up for security?" Mr. Cohen said. "We'll see great powers relegated to the government. Many of them, extending wiretap court orders to the individual, not the phone line, make sense. Getting tougher on controlling our borders makes sense.

"But we need to hold on to our core liberties and require Congress to balance the protection of our security with our privacy," he said. "We can't afford to overreact. Otherwise, we become what the terrorists want us to be."