The White House has accepted 70 of 74 recommendations from a presidential commission on weapons of mass destruction, including creating a new counter-proliferation centre and merging the FBI counterterrorism and intelligence units, according to sources.
The WMD commission issued a 600-page report on March 31st which sharply criticised US intelligence efforts on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and made recommendations on how to improve intelligence collection and information sharing at the spy agencies.
The White House today plans to make public the results of a three-month review of the report, and issue an executive order aimed at targeting the assets of companies believed to be helping North Korea, Iran and Syria acquire technology for use in nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
The White House will accept 70 of the 74 commission recommendations, three will be studied further and one was changed from the way it was recommended, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
US intelligence agencies have come under fire for providing faulty intelligence since the September 11 attacks and legislation was enacted last year to overhaul the system, including the creation of a director of national intelligence to oversee the US’s 15 spy agencies.
The report of The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction was the latest in a series of intelligence reviews.
The White House will advocate keeping the CIA in charge of human spying operations among the intelligence agencies. It also supports the creation of a National Security Service at the FBI to merge its counterterrorism and intelligence functions, the sources said.
The CIA has been sharply criticised for pre-war judgements that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. None have been found. The Bush administration cited the threat from weapons of mass destruction as a key justification for invading Iraq in March 2003.
The White House had no comment on the WMD report review conducted by Mr Bush's homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend.