NATO Moving to Create New Intelligence Chief Post - WSJ

Transcription

1 This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit WORLD NATO Moving to Create New Intelligence Chief Post Aim is to help improve U.S., European information sharing on terrorism and other threats NATO currently doesn t have a formal role in fighting Islamic State. PHOTO: RALF HIRSCHBERGER/ZUMA PRESS By JULIAN E. BARNES Updated June 3, :51 p.m. ET BRUSSELS The Western alliance is moving toward creating a powerful new intelligence post, according to U.S. and European officials, in a bid to improve how Europe and America share sensitive information on terrorism and other threats. In the face of the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels, Europe has struggled to improve cross-border intelligence sharing. Some officials believe the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which relies heavily on U.S. intelligence, could facilitate improved information exchange if it were driven by a new senior intelligence official. NATO doesn t currently have a formal role in fighting Islamic State, and the push for the new intelligence position comes amid growing criticism of the alliance s failure to focus more resources on terrorism. Donald Trump, the probable Republican presidential candidate, has repeatedly said the organization isn t sufficiently committed to countering terrorism. 1 von , 21:41

2 To play a larger role on that front, NATO must get better at sharing and synthesizing intelligence, officials said. The new post of Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence likely to be formally approved by NATO in July was first proposed to improve the alliance s analysis and information about Russian military activities. Some U.S. and NATO officials said its most important effect, however, could be to improve how the alliance analyzes and shares intelligence on Islamic State and other Middle East-based terrorist threats. The terror network behind both the NATO has to be focused on counterterrorism. November Paris attacks and the March Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) Brussels attacks had direct ties to Islamic State. U.S. and European officials have said the group s leaders in Syria sent encrypted messages to Europe-based terrorists. Increasing NATO s role in intelligence on terrorism isn t without controversy. Many European countries maintain a strict division between intelligence and police operations. Officials are careful to note that as a military alliance, NATO has no law-enforcement role and can t tread on functions of the European Union s police agency, Europol, which recently created a counterterrorism center. But while the EU leaves security matters to member states, NATO has a mandate and the ability to share intelligence among members with a secure network and a robust system for classifying secret material, officials said. NATO also includes two critical players in the intelligence world, U.S. and Turkey, that aren t EU members and could make the alliance a better forum for sharing valuable intelligence, officials said. Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), the chairman of the House intelligence committee, said NATO needs to refocus its intelligence analysis on terrorism, adding that a new intelligence coordinator could begin to prod allies to share more and create a common picture of threats against the West. NATO needs to have a serious [counterterrorism] focus, at least on intelligence, said Mr. Nunes, who visited the alliance s Brussels headquarters in May. It is not going to change anything overnight. But if you grow this over 2 von , 21:41

3 several years, in five years you might have something valuable. Rather than spending more money, Mr. Nunes said, NATO needs to make its current efforts more effective. He said NATO s largely U.S.-funded Intelligence Fusion Center in the U.K. should shift its mandate from Afghanistan to a broader counterterrorism effort. Neither the U.S. or NATO publicly discloses how much is spent on alliance intelligence. But a U.S. official said the U.S. spends about $200 million a year, a sum another official said amounted to about three-quarters of all alliance intelligence funding. NATO collects no intelligence of its own, relying instead on contributions from member states. While Mr. Nunes and others have criticized NATO intelligence sharing as moribund, the alliance maintains secure communications systems and is building a small fleet of reconnaissance drones. An Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence would be empowered to provide broad strategic guidance to NATO s military commands, officials said, and to streamline and coordinate the alliance s analysis. Currently, they said, senior NATO ambassadors can sometimes be presented with one intelligence assessment from the alliance s military intelligence channel and another from the civilian one, with little or no attempt to explain why the analyses differ. The reform, said American advocates of the change, would be akin to the creation of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. We need someone who can think through the whole system in a strategic way and have a vision of how to improve it over time, said a senior U.S. official. Improving intelligence coordination in the U.S. wasn t easy, and the changes implemented in the past 15 years have proved imperfect. Still, officials say military intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency are now able to far better coordinate and rapidly share intelligence with civilian agencies like the CIA and FBI. Czech Army Gen. Petr Pavel, head of NATO s military committee, said the official in the new post would sit atop a revamped NATO intelligence structure that pulls military and civilian intelligence together into one product, combined from these two branches. This ensures that the NATO leadership, both political and military, will have one common intelligence picture that fuses and combines intelligence analyses 3 von , 21:41

4 NATO leadership, both political and military, will have one common intelligence picture that fuses and combines intelligence analyses from all available sources. Czech Army Gen. Petr Pavel, head of NATO s military committee from all available sources, Gen. Pavel said on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore. Some alliance members are skeptical about how big an intelligence role the alliance can have. A French official said the bulk of intelligence sharing is done on a bilateral basis, and NATO would never replace that. Still, the French official said Paris supports creating of the new post. The alliance began talking about overhauling its intelligence system several years ago, after Russia annexed Ukraine, surprising many Western intelligence agencies. There is a sense at NATO that Russian decision-making cycles are faster moving than Western ones are, a senior U.S. official said. The new assistant secretary general would be a civilian, but someone with military experience; an active-duty officer would serve as deputy. U.S. officials initially pushed for an American to fill the role, but other nations blocked the move, saying Washington was getting too many other senior posts at NATO. The U.S. is nominating an American diplomat, Rose Gottemoeller, to serve as the alliance s deputy secretary general and another American holds an assistant secretary general post. U.S. officials favor a Briton or Canadian official for the role, although officials also said the Dutch a have pushed a strong candidate as well. Chun Han Wong contributed to this article. Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com 4 von , 21:41

5 NATO Moving to Create New Intelligence Chief Post - WSJ WHAT TO READ NEXT... U U..SS.. N NEEW WSS H HEEA ALLT TH H& &W WEELLLLN NEESSSS Influx of Younger, Wealthier Residents Transforms U.S. Cities Three Simple Pilates Exercises for Back Pain M MIID DD DLLEE EEA ASST TN NEEW WSS EELLEEC CT TIIO ON N Islamic State Affiliate s Rise Alters Mideast Security Appeals Court Says Kansas Can t Prevent Voters From Casting Ballots Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at or visit 5 von , 21:41