Panel Ponders New Intelligence Agency

Oh joy... a new domestic intelligence (READ: SPY) agency... they reference MI5... I wonder if the Gestapo, NKVD and Stasi might not be a more fitting description?


WASHINGTON - The independent commission studying the Sept. 11 terror attacks is considering recommending changes in U.S. intelligence that would go well beyond actions of the Bush administration, including creation of a domestic spy agency modeled after Britain's MI5.


James B. Steinberg, deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, said he advocates the creation of two new entities: an independent director of national intelligence and a domestic security service like the MI5.


Steinberg was expected to testify Tuesday at a public hearing for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Other experts at the hearing will include James R. Schlesinger and John M. Deutch, both former directors of central intelligence, chief of the CIA and all other U.S. intelligence operations.

story.news.yahoo.com.../ap/20031013/ap_on_go_ot/sept_11_commission