Intelligence agencies need defense-like overhaul, many say.

Byline: Harry Levins

ST. LOUIS _ The news: President Bush on Friday gave more power to the CIA chief, in effect making him the national intelligence director.

The analysis: Some point to the restructuring of the Defense Department after World War II as an example of what might be needed. Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton of the 9/11 Commission says, "We need a Goldwater-Nichols reform for the intelligence community." The senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, California's Jane Harman, says the same thing, then adds: "And we need it right now."

"Goldwater-Nichols" is shorthand for the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., teamed with Rep. Bill Nichols, D-Ala., to write a bill that shook up the way the Pentagon did business.

Goldwater-Nichols generally gets good grades for streamlining the chain of command and bulldozing the institutional rivalries that kept the armed forces from meshing their skills.

Before Goldwater-Nichols, Americans heard horror stories like the one about the Army airborne lieutenant in the invasion of Grenada in 1983. The lieutenant needed fire support from Navy ships parked offshore. But he lacked any way of reaching the Navy's radios.

In frustration, the lieutenant used a pay phone and a credit card to call his home post, Fort Bragg, N.C. In turn, the folks at Fort Bragg finally got through to the Navy _ the long way around for a simple fire mission.