London's Lessons

HEADNOTE

Reorganizing intelligence agencies and beefing up their budgets might not be enough.

In the wake of the July 7 bombings in London, the British authorities' response-including scrutiny of closedcircuit TV

footage, scene-scouring for forensic evidence and close attention to phone tips-was a textbook example of good investigative methodology. But if there's a lesson for the U.S. counterterrorism community after last month's U.K. attacks, it might be that buffed-up budgets and agency reorganizations don't amount to much if they still fail to resolve differences over assessments and use of resources before a terrorist attack.

Just as America has ramped up its counterterrorism spending and started reorganizing its intelligence community, so too has the United Kingdom. After Sept. n, almost $350 million in additional spending went to Ml5 and MI6 (Britain's internal and external intelligence agencies), the London Metropolitan Police special-operations units, SOu and SOi3, which focus on terrorism, and the eavesdroppers at the Government Communications Headquarters. By 2004, almost 40 percent of British signals intelligence resources were directed toward counterterrorism, and Scotland Yard had a budget of $91 million that included, among other things, 700 additional officers detailed to terrorism.