Foreign Ministry guys don't become agents. Party officials the Foreign Ministry nerds tend not to volunteer to Western intelligence agencies.
Since the tragedies the Department of Homeland Security was established to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States and most importantly to share intelligence information among government agencies and departments.
Another factor is the decision made in 1976 to sharply divide the FBI and the foreign intelligence agencies. The FBI would collect within the United States the foreign intelligence agencies would collect overseas.
Since 2001 the Patriot Act has provided the means to detect and disrupt terrorist threats against the U.S. Prior to enactment of the law major legal barriers prevented intelligence national defense and law enforcement agencies from working together and sharing information.
The intelligence investigation under the leadership of Senator Church which I know has helped cause this investigation by you points out that the agencies did not disclose certain facts to us and that certain plots were going on.
The PATRIOT Act brought down the wall separating intelligence agencies from law enforcement and other entities charged with protecting the Nation from terrorism.
Would it not be much better to have a president who deliberately lied to the people because he thought a war was essential than to have one who was so dumb as to be taken in by intelligence agencies especially those who told him what he wanted to hear?
In the fight against terrorism national agencies keep full control over their police forces security and intelligence agencies and judicial authorities.
I can tell you that the Canadian intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been providing outstanding co-operation with our intelligence and law enforcement agencies as we work together to track down terrorists here in North America and put them out of commission.
Prior to the passage of the Patriot Act it was very difficult - often impossible - for us to share information with the Central Intelligence Agency with NSA with the other intelligence agencies and likewise for them to share information with us.