Feedback, Kerry Activity

How does this lack of support by Kerry Jive with him becoming President?



Kerry Haunted by Votes to Cut Intel Funding
By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
February 10, 2004

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Democrats are hoping to make the controversy
over intelligence failures a political liability for President Bush. But
the appointment of a presidential commission to investigate intelligence
failures may prove troublesome to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the likely
Democratic nominee, when the panel begins its work.

Responding to a question from Talon News, White House Press Secretary
Scott McClellan suggested that the commission's investigation would be
looking backward as well as forward.

"If you're doing a broad assessment of your intelligence capabilities,
you want to make sure you look at where we've been and where we're
headed," McClellan said.

The president's executive order that formed the commission stated that
its purpose would be to "Assess whether the intelligence community is
sufficiently authorized, organized, equipped, trained, and resourced."
This poses a particularly difficult situation for the Democratic
front-runner. His votes in the Senate have already begun to emerge.

As recently as 1997, Kerry questioned the size of the intelligence
community.

"Now that [the Cold War] struggle is over, why is it that our vast
intelligence apparatus continues to grow," Kerry said.

In 1995, the Massachusetts Senator proposed a bill that would gut $1.5
billion from the overall intelligence budget by reducing funding $300
million for five years, beginning in 1996. No co-sponsors signed onto
the bill and it never made it to the Senate floor for a vote.

The previous year, Kerry proposed a bill to slash $1 billion from the
budgets of the National Foreign Intelligence Program and from Tactical
Intelligence, and freezing their budgets. That bill was rejected.

The National Foreign Intelligence Program encompasses all programs,
projects, and activities of the intelligence community. A major
component of the program is the FBI's Nationwide Counter Terrorism
Programs. The responsibilities of the FBI's field offices include
foreign counterintelligence and counter terrorism within the United States.

The mission for special agents working in these programs is to detect
and thwart the intelligence collection activities of foreign powers and
their agents, and take aggressive measures to reduce the vulnerabilities
of the United States to terrorism.

Tactical Intelligence provides critical time-sensitive information on
foreign entities in support of operating forces on the ground as well as
training personnel for intelligence duties.

In 1993, Kerry proposed $45 billion in science, intelligence, and
defense spending cuts.


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Posted by HOPPIE, 30 Years Active Duty ,13 Campaigns Vietnam, Life
Member; Am.Lgn,DAV,VFW,AFSA