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In an obvious effort to protect the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi -- whom many believe has been deceptive in her statements regarding the Central Intelligence Agency -- House Democrats, with the help of the Director of Central Intelligence Leon Panetta, went on the attack over the weekend.
With the appointment of a political operative -- former Bill Clinton smear operative Leon Panetta -- rather than a military, intelligence or law enforcement professional as the CIA director, what was supposed to be an apolitical government agency is becoming more and more a hotbed of Beltway politics, according to some observers.
One of the major challenges facing the intelligence community is moving from a culture of "need to know" to a "need to share" organizations, while maintaining secrecy. The experience of leading organizations suggests that performance management systems -- that align, and integrate institutional, unit, and individual performance with organizational goals -- can provide incentives and accountability for sharing information to help achieve this shift.
Significant changes have been underway in the last 3 years regarding how the federal workforce is managed. The Congress passed legislation providing certain government-wide human resources flexibilities, such as direct hiring authority by agency executives. While many federal agencies have received such flexibility, others may be both needed and appropriate for intelligence agencies, such as providing these agencies with the authority to hire a limited number of term-appointed positions on a noncompetitive basis.
Human capital challenges are especially significant for the intelligence and counterintelligence organizations, such as the FBI, that are undergoing a fundamental transformation in the aftermath of
September 11, 2001. For the last 3 years, they have been using the lessons learned from successful transformations to monitor the FBI's progress as it transforms itself from its traditional law enforcement mission to its post 9/11 homeland security priorities -- counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cyber crimes.For example, the FBI has undertaken a variety of human capital related initiatives, including major changes in realigning, retraining, and hiring special agents and analysts with critical skills to address its top priorities. The 9/11 Commission recommended that a single federal security clearance agency should be created to accelerate the government's security clearance process. Several factors must be considered in determining the approach to this process.
The large number of requests for security clearances for service members, government employees, and others taxes a process that already is experiencing backlogs and delays. Existing impediments — such as the lack of a government-wide database of clearance information, a large clearance workload, and too few investigators -- hinder efforts to provide timely, high-quality clearance determinations. Valuable lessons from these efforts could help guide the proposed reforms in the intelligence community envisioned by the 9/11 Commission.
Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Homeland Security, General Accountability Office, National Security Institute, National Association of Chiefs of Police..jpg)
addition, he's the new editor for the House Conservatives Fund's weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com. He's also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.
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Comments
YES!
This continuous weakness by the Democrats in prosecuting Bush, Cheney, Rumpfeeler, and Rice only shows how pathetic the Democratic Party is.
Clear violations of international law and domestic constitutional law were made in the Bush era, yet the democrats with a clear majority can't pull itself together to get anything done. Can't pass an honest national healthcare program, can't pass true finanical reforms for banks and Wall St., literally can't do anything to protect and serve the American people.
How disgusting.
And the only thing the Republicans do is steal us blind (thanks you, Mr. Renquist). And that is the crux of the problem: the massive, flagrant theft of US taxpayer dollar serves the selfish individuals on both sides of the isle. This is are most challenging issue in the new century we have entered. How will we get a constitutional revolution to rid ourselves of massive corruption in all institutions: legislative, judicial, and executive.
And has anybody mentioned the fact that Congress was made up a majority of Loyal Republicans, so the lying was done to them as well? While they were following their leaders, the VP & the President faithfully, they were being lied to and cheated on! Now they say the Dems are being over reactive? I guess they don't mind being lied to. The other fact that is being forgotten is that Congress represents the People of this Country (as well as the President & VP). They work for us, so if they are not informed, they cannot make educated, balanced decisions on important issues such as war, the ecomomy, the environment, and healthcare. The CIA/FBI are also workers for the people of this Country. Let us not forget who the lies and cover ups really affect!
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