— Intelligence officials have long been wary of outsiders' second-guessing. But they have reluctantly begun to acknowledge that a major overhaul could be in order after what may be two of the greatest intelligence setbacks in decades: the failure to anticipate the Sept. 11 attacks and the misjudgment of Iraq's weapons stockpiles. They hope the independent commission President Bush will appoint can offer them more help and less finger pointing.
Within the Central Intelligence Agency in particular, the words intelligence review still conjure bitter memories from the 1970's and the Congressional inquiry by the committee headed by Senator Frank Church, whose effort to unearth abuses and impose reforms is remembered by many as an inquisition. The kinds of solutions recommended for spy agencies by Congressional panels and blue-ribbon commissions have been derided, then and since, by many intelligence professionals as naïve or unworkable.
