December 18, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 13, 1423

WASHINGTON, Dec 17: The United States must create an independent domestic spy agency to ferret out possible terrorist cells on American soil and thwart their future plots, a government advisory panel has recommended.

The conclusion marks the first official formulation of a plan that has been informally discussed at the White House and Congress for several weeks, much to the dismay of top officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who consider it an encroachment upon their prerogatives.

If the recommendation unveiled Monday by the commission chaired by former Virginia governor James Gilmore is accepted, it could result in a dramatic downfall for the most powerful counterespionage and crime-fighting agency in the world and its transformation into a mere federal police force.

The commission, created in 1999 to assess the country’s preparedness for terrorist attacks, said the new National Counter Terrorism Center, which would assume many of the FBI’s current functions, should report directly to the president and be capable of producing assessments of threats inside the United States.

“The FBI’s long standing law enforcement tradition and organizational culture persuade us that, even with the best of intentions, the FBI cannot soon be transformed into an organization dedicated to detecting and preventing terrorist attacks,” the Gilmore commission said in a report.—AFP