Several months ago, this post addressed Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner‘s criticism of the recommendations contained in the final report of the 9/11 Commission. In doing research on the 9/11 Commission report, Judge Posner decided to write a new book on intelligence reform, on which he is currently working.
In this NY Times op-ed, Judge Posner points out that the reason the Bush Administration is having trouble finding someone to fill the “Intelligence Czar” position that the Commission recommended is that the proposed position is ill-conceived and makes impossible demands:

The beguiling premise of the commission’s report was that the 9/11 attacks occurred because there wasn’t enough sharing of intelligence data among America’s 15 or so federal intelligence agencies. The report’s reassuring conclusion is that we can solve the problem by centralizing the control of the intelligence system. The premise is doubtful; only in hindsight do the scattered clues gathered in the summer of 2001 point to the attacks that took place.
And slotting in a new bureaucracy (the director is authorized a staff of 500) above the existing agencies will not increase information sharing. Instead, by adding a layer to the intelligence hierarchy, it will delay and diminish the flow of information to the president.

Read the entire op-ed. Key thought here — more centralization of information analysis does not equate with better analysis.