Bush intelligence pick stresses domestic security

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) President George W Bush's nominee for US intelligence chief said he would focus on threats inside US borders -- not just foreign threats -- to prevent another September 11-scale attack.

Seeking confirmation by a Senate that has bristled at many of the administration's security policies that critics say infringe on constitutional rights, retired Navy Adm. Mike McConnell also pledged to work with lawmakers in leading the 16 agencies that make up the US intelligence community.

''Not many years ago, the intelligence community focused almost exclusively on foreign threats outside our borders,'' McConnell told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at his confirmation hearing yesterday.

''What is new is the need to focus on these threats inside our borders. We must be effective in collecting and processing information to protect Americans from terrorism, and to do so consistent with our Constitution,'' said McConnell, who rose to prominence in the administration of Bush's father, George H W Bush.

McConnell, 63, who headed the National Security Agency in the 1990s, spoke a day after the Justice Department agreed to allow selected members of the Democrat-led Congress to see secret court documents that authorized Bush's newly revised domestic spying program.

An earlier program overseen by NSA caused an uproar because it monitored international telephone calls and e-mails of US citizens without first obtaining court warrants.

HIGH-LEVEL SHUFFLE If confirmed by the Senate, McConnell would take over the intelligence community as congressionally-mandated reforms aimed at preventing another September 11-scale attack have just begun to take hold.

In a high-level shuffle announced in January, the Bush administration said current intelligence chief John Negroponte, who has a four-decade diplomatic career, would take over the No. 2 position at the State Department.

Since Negroponte became the first director of national intelligence 22 months ago, officials have reported significant progress on intelligence sharing and structural issues that kept agencies such as the CIA and FBI from cooperating on security issues before the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have voiced concern that the transition in leadership could stall a reform process that some critics say already has been too sluggish.

Representatives from the intelligence chief's office told the Senate last month that it would take another several years to achieve the level of reform envisioned in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which created the job of national intelligence director.

Both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate committee complained that the intelligence community has ignored their requests for information, including budget data and details of sensitive intelligence programs.

McConnell assured lawmakers that he would work to realise the full intent of the reform legislation.

''If confirmed, I will consult with you often, I will seek your counsel and I will take it seriously,'' he said in his opening statement.

''I will be open to your questions, ideas and proposals,'' McConnell added.

Reuters SBA VP0515