U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is right to continue to press for more communication among U.S. intelligence agencies.

As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Roberts has had ample opportunity to review how those agencies have operated both before and since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He is convinced that the territorial secrecy of the various government intelligence agencies hampers America’s ability to connect information in a way that will make the nation safer.

The nation should be listening.

Roberts repeated his concerns Wednesday in response to a closed-door intelligence briefing the Senate panel received last week. His assessment is that the nation’s intelligence agencies “still stubbornly refuse to adequately share information.” And, unless the nation creates a new national intelligence director position, that circumstance is unlikely to change.

The Senate’s intelligence reform bill would create that position but wouldn’t give it enough power, Roberts says. Without one central person holding various agencies accountable for sharing knowledge with one another, he maintains, the interaction just won’t happen.

Roberts appears to be one of the few people banging this important drum. Politically, it can’t be favorable for him to continue to buck the Republican leadership on this issue, but he remains committed to his stand. He is in a strong position to evaluate the nation’s intelligence weaknesses, and he obviously places a high priority on ensuring that information is shared among government agencies.

Power to Roberts for standing on principle and pressing this important issue. Hopefully he can get his colleagues to listen and act accordingly.