Pentagon and FBI should stop picking away at the CIA

All the infighting and lack of cooperation and battles over jurisdiction among the agencies that share the annual $40 billion budget for intelligence-gathering was supposed to be a thing of the past. The final piece of legislation to bring the capabilities together in a spirit of unity — the creation of a director of national intelligence — was passed in a fever at the end of the year. So why hasn't anyone been nominated for the position?

President Bush says he is looking for the right person, presumably someone with the experience, skill and strength of personality to settle disputes and bring some semblance of cohesion to the puzzle. Even the strongest candidate will need Oval Office support to keep from just being another insignificant figurehead like the drug czar or the energy czar. But nothing is going to occur until the president steps in with all his force, settles on a nominee and personally orders everyone from FBI Director Robert Mueller to CIA Director Porter Goss to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and everyone beneath them to pay attention.

Michael Chertoff, nominated to be the new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, also has a major role to play. Not only does he have the job of trying to make some sense out of a 180,000-person operation, he must be certain his various agencies receive the intelligence they need to head off another terrorist attack. The betting is he is tough enough to do both and won't take a back seat to the Defense and Justice departments and the CIA on key intelligence matters.

Until the new chief spy is named and confirmed and Chertoff has been approved, it makes very little sense for either the Pentagon or the FBI to start picking away at the CIA or visa versa. Tell them all to back off, Mr. President, until this is sorted out. It seems an intelligent thing to do.

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Dan K. Thomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service.