Meanwhile, NEWSWEEK has learned, White House officials are circulating a draft of a secret presidential directive returning control of counterterrorism operations to the National Security Council. After the Iran-contra scandal (when counterterrorism policy was run out of the NSC by Oliver North), the Reagan administration gave State the job of coordinating Washington’s response to terrorists abroad. Now State, Pentagon and FBI officials are fighting the White House plan, fearing it could breed the kind of off-the-books operations that embarrassed Reagan.
Counterterrorism experts in and out of government worry that the bureaucratic wrangling is already hampering U.S. response to terrorist threats. Critics charge the administration has been slow to respond to the recent kidnapping of two U.S. missionaries by Colombian terrorists. But aides to Christopher insist the infighting has had “no impact on our ability” to counter terrorism.
