Liveblogging the Bush ceremony…

He thanks Sens. Collins and Lieberman, the 9/11 Commission, the 9/11 families, Condi Rice, etc. etc.

No mention, of course, of the House Republicans who rescued this bill from being a total farce.

“America’s enemies need to be only right once.”

The key lesson of Sept. 11, 2001 is that America’s intelligence agencies must work together as a single enterprise…

Outlines the authority of the Director of National Intelligence. Existing chain of command preserved.

I’m now pleased and honored to sign into law the “Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.”

(Full transcript of Bush’s remarks here.)
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Okay. That’s over. As I mentioned last week, there were many useful non-intelligence-related provisions buried in the bill. I am now going through the conference report myself, which can be accessed in PDF form here.

The first thing that is striking is that the “intelligence reform” portion of the bill is barely one-third of the 243-page conference report. The “terrorism prevention” portion of the bill–which President Bush barely mentioned during the ceremony–is the majority of the bill. I’ll be posting detailed analysis soon.

Meanwhile, here’s Juan Mann’s take on some of the noteworthy provisions in Title V of the new law, Border Protection, Immigration, and Visa Matters.

And here’s Andrew McCarthy on the material support provisions under Title VI of the law.

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