b'This notion emerged as a consistent theme in many subsequent studies of the Intelligence Community commissioned by both the legislative and executive branches over the next five decades. It was the attacks of September 11, 2001, however, that finally moved forward the longstanding call for major intelligence reform and the creation of a Director of National Intelligence. Many people believed that the IC had failed in not providing the intelligence necessary to prevent the attacks. Although the IC knew that al-Qaeda was planning a major attack, many out- side the IC said that the diverse structure of the IC prevented it from pulling together all the information it had collected and from producing a coherent and timely analysis of this information. The post-9/11 investigations included a joint congressional inquiry and the independent National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (better known as the 9/11 Commission). The report of the 9/11 Commission in July 2004 proposed sweeping changes in the Intelligence Community, including the creation of a National Intelligence Director. Very soon after the report was released, the federal government moved forward to undertake reform. President George W. Bush signed four Executive Orders in August 2004, which strengthened and reformed the Intelligence Community as much as possible without legislation. In Congress, both the House and Senate passed bills with major amendments to the National Security Act of 1947. Intense negotiations to reconcile the two bills ultimately led to the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA), which President Bush signed into law on December 17, 2004. not gotheDowhere path may lead, go instead where there is nopath and a leave trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays 2 1'