Annual US Intelligence Bill Tops $80 Billion 230
Ponca City writes "The LA Times reports that the US government has disclosed its annual intel budget for the first time in more than a decade: $80.1 billion on intelligence gathering, representing about 12% of the nation's $664-billion defense budget. The government revealed the total intelligence budget twice before, in 1997 and 1998, in response to a lawsuit. It was $26.6 billion and $26.7 billion, respectively, meaning the budget has tripled in 12 years. 'It is clear that the overall spending on intelligence has blossomed to an unacceptable level in the past decade,' says Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. Dana Priest reported that more than 1,200 government agencies or offices and almost 2,000 outside contractors are involved in counter-terrorism activities, producing about 50,000 intelligence reports each year, far more than the government can effectively digest. The US is running so many secret programs that James R. Clapper Jr., director of national intelligence, said during his confirmation hearings that 'only one entity in the entire universe' knows what they're all doing, and 'that's God.'"
Feinstein ... ? (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems fairly clear that with "the last decade" they are trying to blame it on (who would've guessed?) Bush.
The chairs of the committee have been:
I wonder how much the budget went up from 2001-2003 and from 2007-present, since Democrats chaired it then? I find it hard to pin this down on either party...
Re:Feinstein ... ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
where is the tea party and the republicans (Score:2, Interesting)
complaining about uncontrolled government spending?
only when it goes to teachers and transit systems and healthcare for poor people do they seem to get upset
the usa has to massively curtail its intelligence and military spending
unfortunately, we will only dominate the world 2x over, rather than 10x over (rolls eyes)
spying on ourselves (Score:2, Interesting)
You have to wonder how much of this is spent internally - wiretapping ourselves, invading our own privacy, installing GPS to some poor innocent kid's car for no reason. Unless you count some idle remarks on facebook as legit reasons for anything.
Terrorists are the new commies. And like commies they could be among us, working to bring us down from within! Hurry and report all your friends on facebook before they report you!
Re:Move over military-industrial complex... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:where is the tea party and the republicans (Score:3, Interesting)
where is the tea party and the republicans complaining about uncontrolled government spending?
Well I for one am for cutting defense as well as entitlements wherever possible. The problem with defense is that neither you nor I have any clue what number is actually appropriate to meet our defense needs without expert knowledge of international diplomacy, military strategy and a big crystal ball to see what the future threats will be. It is easy for the UK to slash their defense spending when their doctrine states that in every large conflict they will only take part with partners (translation: US will carry most of the burden). I personally suspect that the military could do the same with less if they had to, but every congress and president, R or D, have been throwing money at them so they never had to be particularly efficient with it.
Re:Why not just scarp US Intelligence (Score:3, Interesting)
I am a pretty left-leaning guy, and I am no huge fan of Gitmo, but there is probably a reason that Gitmo still hasn't been closed. After all, President Obama would have really fired up his base going into these midterm elections if he could check off "closed Gitmo" on his list of to-dos. Therefore, I really, honestly believe that there are some really scary things happening at Gitmo with very few horrible, hardcore killers who have been giving up all sorts of useful intelligence but who cannot be tried in a civilian court because they have been endlessly tortured to obtain that information. Senator Obama made his campaign promises to close down Gitmo not knowing the secret horrors and President Obama has to backtrack because he now knows about the shit going on.
I do not like the "national security" thing but this might be one of the cases where it actually is happening.
The problems today are tough (Score:5, Interesting)
The intel business has changed. It used to be that the US intelligence community was focused on the capabilities of the USSR, which was a big, slow-moving, closed society. Moving to today's targets is tough. The CIA and NSA had all that expertise focused on what the USSR was doing. They were looking for big stuff like missile launchers that are visible from orbit, and communications between a very centralized bureaucracy in Moscow with outlying subordinate stations. It was reasonably clear how to approach that. All that capability was ill-matched to the many post-USSR threats.
Trying to get intel on a terrorist group is tough. First, the target is tiny. Remember, 9/11 only involved about 25 people, and only a few of them knew the plan more than a day in advance. Second, the groups aren't that connected. Islamic terrorism is an ideology, not an organization. Al-Queda ("The Base") is maybe 200 people at this point, and not doing much. The terrorist incidents in recent years haven't been very connected. Third, intel on terrorist groups has a short useful life. Where bin Laden was last month is only of historical interest. US intelligence used to be strategic. Now it's mostly tactical. The US used to obsess over Soviet bomber production rates. There's nothing like that to track now.
Then there are the messes in Afghanistan and Iraq. That's an intel problem; insurgents are hard to find but easy to kill. The dumb insurgents are already dead. The remaining ones know how to keep quiet. There's no centralized control of either insurgency. If the insurgents establish a "stronghold", they become vulnerable. That, by the way, is why the war with the Taliban is stalemated. If the Taliban concentrates enough combat power to do anything big, they become vulnerable to modern firepower. If they operate in the background, they can survive, but can't take over, unless they can wear out their opposition. (This frustrates the US military. "Marine doctrine demands a decision." - FMFM-1. Insurgent doctrine does not. "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue" - Mao Zedong.)
Coming up next: Mexico. Arguably, northern Mexico is already a "failed state". Drug lords are more vulnerable to intel operations than religiously-motivated insurgents, though. They can't hide too much and still do business, they have to deal and communicate, and the members mistrust each other.
That confusion is why the US now has such a confused intel establishment. That's no excuse for it being as big as it is, though. Or, really, as secretive. Most of the targets today have insignificant capabilities to infiltrate or eavesdrop on the US intel establishment. It's not like going up against Moscow Center, which would devote huge resources and years of time to getting inside some US establishment. The secrecy can get in the way of getting things done.
During WWII, and for decades thereafter, it didn't take a pass to get into the Pentagon. Gen. Marshall decided that any competent intelligence service would figure out a way to get into the building, and so only the really important stuff would be secured. Trying to secure the whole building would be security theater. We need more of that kind of thinking.
Re:Why not just scarp US Intelligence (Score:3, Interesting)
Congratulations darkmeridian, you've just made an "ends justifies the means" argument FOR extra-ordinary rendition, possible torture, and state secrets. Is that really what you intended?
In my opinion GITMO should be closed and all prisoners should be tried either by Military Tribunal or in the civilian courts. This is how a modern and upstanding society would handle the problem.
What's going on now is shameful and should end.
Re:Why not just scarp US Intelligence (Score:2, Interesting)
Really? This is all the Republicans fault?
Even though we've had a Democrat President since January 20th, 2009 who could end GITMO with the stroke of a pen? (I might remind you also that he campaigned with the promise to do so.)
What exactly do you think the current administration is supposed to do with the people there, ship them to Antarctica? What country is going to take them, after the previous administration hyped up how dangerous the inmates are?
The fact is this MESS was created by Republicans, and is the gift that keeps on giving.
And you think two years is enough time to fix the legion problems created by previous policies? Are you even awake and comprehending anything? Which party filibusters everything unless they get their way?
Re:where is the tea party and the republicans (Score:3, Interesting)
i am being 100% honest here:
i can't in a million years understand your thinking
someone who understands why boob jobs for teachers is wrong, but thinks expensive toys for military boobs is right
how did that military and intelligence spending stop 9/11? how many aircraft carriers did it take to stop 19 assholes with boxcutters? how much money were we spending on intelligence when the 9/11 hijackers got their visas approved in the mail a couple of months after 9/11? how many trillions and how many dead americans did it take to install the new generation of corrupt jihadi breeding iraqi and afghani governments? corrupt governments the jihadis had a tenuous reason to put the blame on the usa before 9/11, but now have a much more plausible reason to blame us for? you feel safer?
you honestly believe the massive money we are spending in afghanistan or spent in iraq makes one tiny bit of difference in terms of the threats facing us? what i see is it makes us out to be a bigger more pompous target to take down and thumb in the eye to pump up jihadi resolve and morale. what the bleep are we doing there? why aren't we decoupling ourselves from the middle east and letting themselves kill each other in fundamentalist madness rather than getting us involved and making us target numero uno? why aren't we spending 1/100th of the money we spend there so we can drive electric cars AND SIMPLY NOT CARE about middle east oil, and also STOP FUNDING THE JIHADIS every time a soccer mom fills up her SUV?
19 guys with BOXCUTTERS. how do you stop that with aircraft carriers my friend?
military and intelligence spending is out of control, exactly in the same way that teachers getting boob jobs on your dime is out of control, for exactly the same lack of value for what your tax dollars are purchasing
why the bleep can't you see that?