Rumsfeld Denies Trying to Block Intelligence Bill

Instead, Rumsfeld said he has endorsed President Bush's support for the intelligence reforms. A controversial provision is the creation of a national intelligence director to oversee the nation's spying agencies. The Pentagon currently controls the budgets of nine of the 15 agencies.

The post of intelligence czar was a key recommendation of the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission and is backed by Bush and lawmakers from both parties, who spent weeks wrangling over legislation that would establish the Cabinet-level post and wrest 80% of the nation's $40-billion intelligence budget from the Pentagon.

However, efforts to reach agreement in Congress foundered over the weekend. Many lawmakers pronounced the bill dead after it was blocked by House Republicans.

Rumsfeld has warned publicly on several occasions against central control of intelligence. But he said Tuesday that these statements came before the White House embraced creation of a national intelligence director with control of the entire intelligence budget.

"The congressmen who are saying that I had blatant opposition to the bill [are] incorrect because the bill didn't exist in the form that it currently is, and the president didn't have a position on the bill at the times that I was briefing him," Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon press briefing Tuesday.

"Needless to say, I'm a part of this administration. I support the president's position," Rumsfeld said.

However, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, refused to disavow a letter he wrote to lawmakers last month, endorsing a version of the legislation that differed from the bill endorsed by the White House. Myers argued in favor of preserving the Pentagon's control over three intelligence agencies providing "combat support" -- the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office.

"My position on the particular issue is stated in my letter," said Myers, who appeared with Rumsfeld at the briefing.

Although at odds with the White House position, Myers' stance has been echoed by several top officers in the Pentagon who worry that taking control of "combat support" agencies from the Defense Department could disrupt the flow of timely intelligence to U.S. combat troops.