Washington, D.C., August 12/PRNEWSWIRE/ -- According to Robert David Steele Vivas, CEO of OSS.Net, Inc., CIA veteran and founder of the Marine Corps Intelligence Command. "The nomination of the DCI is up to the President and confirmation is up to the Senate—in that context, we respectfully put forward several conditions that must be met if any future DCI is to be effective.

“First, confirmation must be accompanied by a commitment from Congress to pass a National Security Act of 2004 by 31 December 2004, one that transfers full budgetary authority over the three national agencies now misplaced under defense, to the DCI’s authority. Pentagon acceptance of this change, at Presidential direction, should be a pre-condition for any confirmation. The DCI must be able to reduce waste at the NRO, modernize and utilize NSA at an all-source processing center, and commercialize NGA, while drawing on their savings to fund homeland counterintelligence, foreign clandestine operations, and global analysis.

“Second, the nominee for DCI must propose, prior to being confirmed, a specific plan for retiring the senior managers that failed to protect America, and for bringing in a new slate of managers—including at least one substantive published critic as a special assistant—each actively committed to reform across all agencies.

“Third, Congress must mandate the establishment of an independent Open Source Agency as proposed by the 9-11 Commission, and the related Community Intelligence Centers and program for each state. This will foster bottom-up reform, broad new information-sharing habits, and competitive analysis.

“Fourth, confirmation hearings must specify that the DCI is in the service of We the People, the Constitution, and Congress, concurrent with service to the Executive. Giving the DCI the same independence and tenure as now embodied in the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is the fastest way to resolve conflicted loyalties.

“If all of these conditions are met, we can reform American intelligence. Anything less is politics as usual and a betrayal of the public trust.”

Steele is the author of ON INTELLIGENCE (Foreword by Senator Boren) and NEW CRAFT OF INTELLIGENCE (Foreword by Senator Roberts). Visit www.oss.net for more information.