U.S. President George W. Bush, embroiled in a fierce campaign battle over national security, on Friday will give the post of CIA director some of the broad authority that the Sept. 11 commission envisioned for a new intelligence czar. In what they described as an interim step toward more sweeping intelligence reform, aides said Bush would sign a series of national security executive orders that would also create a new National Counterterrorism Center and enhance information sharing between intelligence agencies. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said an order enhancing the powers of the central intelligence director was designed to bolster U.S. intelligence capabilities until Congress could act on a new national intelligence director. A senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Bush was expected to give the CIA director authority over budgetary and other matters at the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. --More 2135 Local Time 1835 GMT
