The new top in redrawn US intelligence

The United States is about to get its most powerful spymaster ever - a director of national intelligence charged with control and coordination of 15 government agencies involved in espionage.

The question is, will "most powerful ever" also mean "powerful enough"?

The nation's new intel chief - who could be nominated as early as this week - will pioneer a very tough job, say experts. As the experience of the Department of Homeland Security shows, melding together bureaucracies with different cultures and missions can be a monumental task.

It will take the right kind of person to get the job done. And this individual will need a crucial kind of support: continued White House backup.

"It is a big job," says William Webster, former director of both the CIA and FBI. "But as long as he or she is treated as the chief executive officer and is responsible for everything, then he or she can make sure the operations are carried out by equally competent people."

This week President Bush is expected to sign the intelligence reform bill that Congress just passed, and at the same time, he may nominate a candidate for this newly created cabinet-level position.

The chosen candidate, who must then be confirmed by the Senate, will in corporate parlance be a sort of CEO, presiding over the chief operating officers and employees of America's civilian and military intelligence agencies. This person will oversee thousands of employees (the number is classified) and an estimated $40 billion annual budget (also classified), and he or she will have the ability to re-allocate and redirect some of that money if necessary.

But it won't be easy for any one person to pull 15 disparate agencies together while forcing them to cede some of their control. First, all these entrenched bureaucracies (or fiefdoms) are led by strong personalities, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He has the steep responsibilities of running the war in Iraq and, to a great extent, the war on terror, as well as preparing this country's military for future engagements - all with, some say, the appropriate budgetary authority.

Morale in many of these leading agencies, especially the CIA, has plummeted following the exposure of failures in collecting information against Iraq and Al Qaeda. Moreover, a new director, Porter Goss, took the CIA reins in September and embarked on a highly controversial overhaul of the clandestine service.

Others caution that the rushed-through package may create an additional and unnecessary layer of government, and that it addresses reform from the top down only - not "down in the weeds," where the actual work of penetrating terrorist organizations and rogue countries is done.

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