I just saw talk on cspan last nite regarding intel, one of the speakers was congresswoman, Jane Harman from my district.

"Washington, D.C. - At a forum today on “Serious Intelligence Reform” sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute(1:00p.m. ET), Congresswoman Jane Harman (CA-36), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, will discuss the importance of bipartisan approaches and solutions to national security problems and lay out a five-point plan for immediate Intelligence Community reform.

Harman is “convinced that the strongest policies to enhance national security emerge when tough issues are debated and dealt with in a bipartisan way.” However, if the Bush Administration is unwilling to fix the problems plaguing American intelligence in an election year and “has kicked the can down the road until March 2005.…That is like the auto-mechanic who says, ‘I’m sorry I can’t fix your brakes this week, but don’t worry because I made your horn louder.’ ”

While acknowledging the complexity of the task and applauding preliminary actions by the CIA, Harman called on President Bush to take the following five steps to make the country safer right now:

· Direct the intelligence agencies to scrub WMD intelligence estimates worldwide and release updates on all areas of serious concern.

· Direct the Intelligence Community to improve collection and vetting of weapons of mass destruction information.

· Require the Intelligence Community to improve the way it analyzes intelligence and conveys that information to policymakers.

· Direct a review of the activities of various Defense Department offices, including the Office of Special Plans, and their roles in providing a separate channel of intelligence information to DOD policymakers and the Office of the Vice President.

· Take immediate steps to strengthen and reinvigorate the role of international inspectors from organizations like the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Iraq Action Team."
http://www.house.gov/harman/press/releases/2004/030504PR_AEI.html

In addition to Jane Harman, there was ex spook, someone else, and James Woolsey, director of the CIA from 1993-95. The ex operative, was perhaps the most "aggressive" in discussing the intel details- he mentioned a botched US coup in '95. And painted a picture of a CIA which lacked "big brains" and was encumbered with bureaucracy [he mention a story about how he and his classmates kept searching for the "big brains" each time they got reposted to a different sector:]. I mention this to illustrate that it was a frank discussion- though, of course, no one was giving anything that was classified. They spend a fair amount time discussing Iraq's WMD- they mentioned Kay's report favorably and also threw cold water on his sweeping conclusions. At same time said they had missed an opportuny in getting intel in Iraq and weren't sure they would ever get a full picture- because of the amount of records which were destroyed, people killed, and that they missed a short window to get human intel. But at same time they said there was a lot of other intel they could still gather in Iraq.