Bush agrees with 9/11 panel, CIA head to get more power

US President George W. Bush on Friday will give the post of CIA director some of the broad authority that the 9/11 panel envisioned for a new intelligence czar. In what aides described as an interim step toward intelligence reform, Bush is expected to sign a series of national security executive orders that will also create a National Counter-terrorism Centre and enhance information sharing between agencies.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: ‘‘Until the national intelligence director is created by Congress, we want to ensure that we have an interim structure in place to oversee some of these steps that we are talking.’’
An administration official said Bush would give the CIA director authority over budgetary and other matters at intelligence agencies including the National Security Agency. —(Reuters)