AFTER scrutinizing five disparate agencies for seven weeks, Continental Airlines yesterday appointed Wells, Rich, Greene, an agency built on airline advertising, to handle its nearly $50 million account.

Amateur radio operators can use hundreds of frequencies and can quickly establish networks tying disparate agencies together to enhance interoperability.

As now configured, it involves refereeing disputes between the Pentagon and civilian spy agencies, minus the full powers the director needs to hire and fire and to control the disparate agencies.

Congress should begin working now to end what has been a period of dangerous passivity and deference toward the hydra-like intelligence community, with its 15 disparate agencies and budget lines.

But Mr. Ridge will still need to make sure that the fruits of the intelligence-gathering networks are shared with all the disparate agencies assigned to protect Americans from attack.

Senator Biden said it was unrealistic for the Senate to expect the Russian President, Boris N. Yeltsin, to have "his finger on" every one of his Government's disparate agencies.

"We need a centralized authority for these 15 disparate agencies," Mr. Roemer said.

Even the most outspoken critics acknowledge that Mr. Negroponte's job is dauntingly complex, requiring that he brief President Bush each morning while overseeing disparate agencies and creating his own office from scratch.

The Samsung review was the most recent in which a major advertiser sought to hire various shops owned by a single agency company rather than disparate agencies that may or may not have a common parent.

Weiland and his staff helped to coordinate work among disparate agencies to provide public affairs support to local law enforcement.