Govt wants to improve intelligence capacity

Govt wants to improve intelligence capacity

JAKARTA (JP): The government is revamping the State
Intelligence Coordinating Board (Bakin) in order to gain accurate
information and intelligence data, Coordinating Minister for
Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
said on Wednesday.

Susilo said Bakin would be given a new name, National
Intelligence Agency (BIN). The government will decide on the
matter on Oct. 24 at the latest.

"With Bakin's reorganization, the government hopes to improve
the capacity of the state intelligence board because accurate
information and intelligence data are needed in making decisions
and policies," he said after a special meeting with ministers
under his coordination here on Wednesday.

He said BIN would have greater authority than Bakin, whose
services have been reduced to a coordinative function.

Separately, Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. said his office
would also establish an intelligence agency outside BIN and the
currently influential Indonesian Military's Strategic
Intelligence Agency (BAIS).

"We are planning to establish a defense intelligence agency
(DIA) to provide accurate intelligence data to the government
because so far, the government has yet to have intelligence
sources," he said in a hearing with House of Representatives
Commission for foreign policy, security and defense on Wednesday.

He said the new defense intelligence agency would recruit a
larger part of BAIS personnel so that the military's intelligence
agency could be dissolved because the Army, Navy and Air Force as
TNI's entities would have their own intelligence sections.

He acknowledged that the plan to establish DIA would depend
much on the defense budget.

"It is difficult for us to make a decision because the House
is very tight with the state budget while the intelligence agency
will need unlimited funding to carry out missions," he said.
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