It would appear that a “Bear” has been lurking in Connecticut:

A senior Republican lawmaker on Wednesday called for removing the nation’s center for publicly available intelligence from the CIA, arguing that it not adequately supported and haunted by past scandals.

House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman Rob Simmons, R-Conn., said the Open Source Center at Langley, Va., should be turned into an independent agency. The center was created last November by National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and then CIA Director Porter Goss as the government’s premiere agency for collecting and processing “open source intelligence,” such as information that is available to the public in newspapers and books. […]

“Every discipline needs a home and the current open source center … is still part of the CIA, so it’s still the ugly stepchild of the intelligence community,” he said. “But I think they need more independence to reach the level that I think they need to reach for this discipline to survive and prosper.”

Let’s hope the momentum carries forward.

About the Author

Michael Tanji

Michael Tanji spent nearly 20 years in the US intelligence community. Trained in both SIGINT and HUMINT disciplines he has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. At various points in his career he served as an expert in information warfare, computer network operations, computer forensics, and indications and warning. A veteran of the US Army, Michael has served in both strategic and tactical assignments in the Pacific Theater, the Balkans, and the Middle East.