Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Public Affairs Office
Washington, D.C.
20511
ODNI News Release No. 13-06
July 27, 2006

Director of National Intelligence Issues Progress Report
on WMD Commission Recommendations

Director of National Intelligence, John D. Negroponte, today released the Intelligence Community’s unclassified progress report on the implementation of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction intelligence reform recommendations.

In June 2005, President George W. Bush endorsed 70 of the 74 recommendations on intelligence reform submitted by the WMD Commission. He directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and other Administration agencies to implement the Commission’s recommendations and related Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004 provisions to improve the work of America’s intelligence agencies.

Since its establishment, the ODNI has closely monitored and tracked implementation of the WMD Commission’s recommendations – ensuring that each effort met the Commission’s original intent, as well as ensuring the ODNI’s IRTPA 2004 compliance.

“Through these various reform efforts and initiatives, the Intelligence Community has made critical improvements to the security of the United States of America,” said John D. Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence. “The IC has achieved considerable success, has clear plans for moving forward, and remains committed to implementing the Commission’s recommendations.”

Among the key highlights of intelligence reforms listed in the report are:

• Mission Management. The ODNI has created five mission managers to coordinate top priority intelligence challenges: counterterrorism, counterproliferation, counterintelligence, Iran and North Korea. Mission mangers have begun to bring a greater degree of coherence and direction to the Intelligence Community’s activities on these key issues.
• Structural Change.The Intelligence Community has been redesigned to meet the challenges of the post-9/11 era. The National Clandestine Service within the CIA was established to coordinate the clandestine human intelligence operations of the U.S. Government, and the Open Source Center to advance the exploitation of open sources for intelligence purposes. The FBI’s National Security Branch was established to house the Bureau’s intelligence, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism efforts under a single executive. Additionally, the ODNI’s National Counterporliferation Center was established to manage and integrate the Intelligence Community’s efforts on this critical issue.
• Improving Collection and Analysis. Analysts from across the Intelligence Community now contribute to the President’s Daily Brief. Also, alternative analysis units have become institutionalized within agencies. Efforts are underway to maximize the Intelligence Community’s development and use of innovative technologies, apply common tradecraft standards for analysis and human intelligence collections, and make lessons learned processes routine.
• Human Capital. The ODNI has established joint duty, along the lines successfully followed in the military, as an essential part of future intelligence careers. We have developed a strategic plan for building the Community’s human capital. And we have begun to revamp the IC compensation system.
• Information Sharing. The ODNI completed a project to allow our British, Australian, and Canadian partners access to our classified systems. Additionally, the ODNI has expanded the number of officials with access to the Intelink Sensitive But Unclassified domain. Progress on creating the Information Sharing Environment, standardizing the classification system, and establishing clear and accurate rules for dealing with “U.S. persons” information has come more slowly, but we remain committed to these vital initiatives.

“In looking at the Intelligence Community a year later, a good deal has already changed,” Negroponte said. “A review of the WMD Commission’s recommendations, though by no means exhaustive, provides a good basis for assessing the breadth of those changes and for prioritizing the ODNI’s goals for continuing IC reform in the coming year.”

While this unclassified report addresses all of the topics covered by the WMD Commission’s recommendations, it does not mention each of the recommendations by name.

The Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 assigns both similar and additional intelligence reform responsibilities to the ODNI, and still more reform objectives are spelled out in the DNI’s National Intelligence Strategy issued in October 2005. Nevertheless, a review of the WMD Commission’s recommendations provides an excellent basis for assessing the extensiveness of the changes the IC has undergone over the past year and for prioritizing ODNI goals for IC reform in the coming year.

The Director of National Intelligence submitted a classified version of the report to the President on July 12, 2006. The unclassified version of the report is available at www.dni.gov.