3-1-96. TWP: "Expert Panel Wants Intelligence Director to Hold More Power." The commission finds that the patchwork of 14 separate intelligence agencies is functioning well in its current form. To meet tbe growing threat of worldwide criminal activity the panel suggested creation of a high-level policy group run out of the White House, called tbe Global Crime Committee. It would be chaired by the president's national security adviser and would include the AG, State, DoD, and the DCI. "Turner: CIA Nearly Used A Journalist in Tehran." CIA's covert operators do not want to reopen the debate. As Turner put it, "Is the media case stronger than businessmen or academics? The covert operators are worried that we may reach a point where prohibitions will get us down to where there is nobody left to spy but the Foreign Service." 3-1-96. NYT: "Commission Recommends Streamlined Spy Agencies." Most of the changes the report will recommend are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Intelligence officials used the same word to describe it: "underwhelming." The report fails to answer the big overstaffing problem. An official said the resistance within the intelligence agencies to staff cutting would be so strong that the downsizing would never happen. MAF_ios