Touting measures to improve national security, President Bush said Saturday that government efforts to make America safe against terrorism have worked, but more actions are needed to reform the U.S. intelligence service and track terrorists. This week, Bush signed a series of executive orders to support counter terrorism activities and addressed the plans in his weekly radio address Saturday. "I agree with the 9/11 commission that America needs a single official to coordinate the foreign and domestic activities of the intelligence community with authority over personnel budgeting and policy," Bush said. "I am working with Congress to create this position. And while we act, the director of central intelligence will play an expanded role." The president also urged Congress to act swiftly on his nomination of U.S. Rep. Porter Goss to lead the CIA. He described Goss, a Florida Republican, as a "proven reformer with decades of experience in intelligence." In creating a new counter-terrorism center, Bush said his goal is to build upon the capabilities of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, which he created more than a year ago. "The center will become our government's central knowledge bank for information about known and suspected terrorists and will help ensure effective joint action across the government, so that our efforts against terrorists are unified in priority and purpose," the president said. "Third, we're making sure that all our agencies of our government share vital threat information," Bush said. "To continue to protect the freedoms and privacy of our citizens, I've established a civil liberties board to monitor the information sharing practices," Bush said. The combined efforts are "essential to America's security," according to Bush, and will begin to answer concerns expressed by the 9/11 commission. "America faces a great threat, and our government is doing everything in its power to confront and defeat that terror," said Bush. "We have made a great progress against the terrorists who seek to harm our nation. We have made great progress in protecting our homeland. "In all that lies ahead, America will stay focused and determined, and we will prevail," he said.
