Last night on Special Report Brit Hume interviewed Ralph Peters about the problem of counterterrorism. He opened with a clip of Donald Rumsfeld noting that the U.S. is alone, or one of very few nations, in having no domestic intelligence agency. Thanks, Frank Church.

Peters very sensibly pointed out the differences between the FBI, as presently constituted, and the way a domestic counterterror agency should function, including some points I have made recently about the stultifying effect of bureaucracy on rapid and creative intelligence gathering and assessment. He also said that Tom Ridge's office is unlikely to be more than a cheerleader unless he gets budgetary authority over the other agencies and some real power. We should listen to this man. He has a new book, Beyond Terrorism. Oh, to be a professor with access to a good university library and Lexis-Nexis!

The transcript should be up in a couple of days.