There has been discussion in Washington that the FBI and the CIA need to be combined into one department.

We've heard the adage: If if ain't broke, don't fix it.

However, terrorists previously found a chink in America's armor, which at the very least shows that America's intelligence-gathering community isn't where it needs to be.

But we can all agree that something needs to be done.

Unfortunately, we don't have an answer to what that exactly means. But we do question President Bush's belief that intelligence can be shared and analyzed the same -- if not better -- than before Sept. 11 without having to move the FBI and CIA into a new department.

What makes him so sure?

There's no question that a lot is being done behind the scenes to improve the performance of these two agencies. However, the taxpaying public -- who are ultimately these folks' bosses -- need to be informed and assured these changes are going to made for the better, and not in a shell-game format.

From our view, saying that you're going to improve on what you have doesn't mean that much. If anything, it's a slap in the face to taxpayers and voters everywhere in this country.

Americans deserve a concrete guarantee that these two agencies will serve us better. Just saying that they'll do a better job isn't too reassuring, especially in times like these.