Intelligence spending at record $80.1 billion overall

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPo

Intelligence spending at record $80.1 billion overall
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 29, 2010

The government announced Thursday that it had spent $80.1 billion on intelligence activities over the past 12 months, disclosing for the first time not only the amount spent by civilian intelligence agencies but also by the military.

The National Intelligence Program, run by the CIA and other agencies that report to the Director of National Intelligence, cost $53.1 billion in fiscal 2010, which ended Sept. 30, while the Military Intelligence Program cost an additional $27 billion.

Spending on intelligence for 2010 far exceeded the $42.6 billion spent on the Department of Homeland Security and the $48.9 billion spent on the State Department and foreign operations.

The cost of the Military Intelligence Program has always remained classified. But as undersecretary of defense for intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., now the director of national intelligence, secured approval to release the figure.

"I pushed through and got Secretary Gates to approve revelation of the Military Intelligence Program budget," Clapper told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in July.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/28/AR2010102807284.html

[Kolesar]

1. Their satellites are ineffectual and are just gravy for the weapons industry

Satellites are not totally useless: the money would be better spent on translators, economic analysts and people "on the ground" in other countries.

---
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, joined Feinstein in calling for fiscal restraint on the part of the intelligence community. He said that, along with Feinstein and her vice chairman, Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), he had put cost controls on major systems, such as intelligence satellites, and looked forward to helping to "eliminate the waste, fraud and irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars."

[OneBlueSky]

2. "military intelligence" is the penultimate oxymoron . . . n/t

.

[Blandocyte]

3. Then the ultimate is "jumbo shrimp"

I wonder if the Tea Klanners will want to cut military and intel funding, by the way.

[saigon68]

34. Never Happen

Its never ending war on the docket

[Solly Mack]

4. hmmm

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Blue_Tires]

6. attention rw teabag scum: THAT IS WHAT WASTEFUL SPENDING LOOKS LIKE

[Jefferson23]

7. When you think what this could have been spent on to help Americans..incredible. n/t

[ezmerelda39]

8. 80 Billion?

Let's talk turkey. let's talk about the deficit, let's talk about the two Trillion the Pentagon supposedly has not been able to locate since 2001, let's talk about....80 Billion? Pocket change for the Pentagon...

[nc4bo]

9. This slays me....

They want to review the Pentagon budget and cut excesses but exclude everything war-related? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Hello?!

Now we have this humongous budget for intelligence programs. No wonder it was kept secret.

Gates has commissioned a major review of the Pentagon budget, with a goal of finding $100 billion in excess spending over five years, thus reducing the growth of the Defense Department budget to about 2 percent annually excluding the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How much for these evil wars plus this intelligence spending together? Then these people want to claim that we can't afford Social Security or Single Payer or to rebuild our infrastructure or fix our public schools, keep libraries open or provide food stamps/housing/childcare for whoever needs them.

Good God!!!! You can't get much more trifling than this.

[villager]

14. Slays you? That budget has been used to slay a sitting President,

a Senator (or two or three?), a Civil rights leader, etc., in years past...!

[nc4bo]

16. I think you misunderstood what I said.....

ugh.

[villager]

37. I think you misunderstood my riffing off what you said...

;-)

[nc4bo]

38. Jeez....

I'm sorry villager - you know how you get so upset at something and your mind sorta just clouds over in shades of red and black? That happened to me while adding up those figures.

Anyway - apologies. I got it now ;)

[CanonRay]

10. If we have that much intelligence

why not send some down to Kentucky and see if it will get people smarter so they vote against Rand Paul.

[ensho]

11. its makework

nt

[Festivito]

12. That's $300 per Amercan each year, $1,000 for a family of three. /nt

[harun]

13. Every candidate running should be talking of cutting this spending, yet none of them are.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

15. One reason for the high price tag today is because BushCo and AT&T were in bed together.

[boppers]

17. So, basically, it's not much.

[nc4bo]

18. That's not the same pie chart of spending I've seen floated around here

the one where MIC spending is way, way over 23%.

Oh wait the chart you posted doesn't include the wars, does it?

If it doesn't, should we not count the cost of the wars every time a defense budget is referred to?

Not snark - honest question.

[JackRiddler]

19. It's the trick of throwing in Social Security & Medicare even though these are raised separately...

with the surplus revenues going into T-bills, rather than the regular budget.

The actual discretionary budget funded by income tax goes out mainly for military and interest.

[nc4bo]

27. K - thanks JackRiddler. It's definitely misleading.

It gives (R)'s the perfect excuse to privatize SS and do who knows what to Medicare.

Seems it can also be used by whatever party is in power, the ability to hide in plain sight the actual costs of these 2 wars.

There should be a grand total that includes every and anything defense related, especially post 9/11. It should be a separate entity of its own. Does such a thing exist?

Sorry for the dumb ?'s.

[boppers]

20. I just pulled it from wikipedia, no agenda...

From here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

I wanted to see what 80 billion looked like compared to other costs.

As far as MIC costs, yes, the wars which weren't budgeted aren't in there, and much of the MIC cost is distributed in many ways... does airport screening count? How about homeland security costs?

Of course, this also raises questions about the 80 billion figure, are the costs of database administrators who track social security numbers counted? How about USAID programs? VOA?

[nc4bo]

28. I just mentioned this in my response to JackRiddler

Don't you think it should? I mean EVERYTHING defense related, yes including airport screening, homeland security, the wars, established bases in foreign countries or whatever defense related tentacle that exists.

Wouldn't it be sobering to see those figures in black and white so a fair comparison could be made between what we spend on say social programs and infrastructure for example and the cost of being an aggressive superpower?

I have no idea if such a thing exists but feel it should if it doesn't already.

Like I said to JackRiddler, sorry about my dumb ?'s.

[boppers]

30. I found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

$1.003–$1.223 trillion is the number they came up with.... and then there's this comparison:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_federations_by_military_expenditures

...which is always a bit shocking.

[nc4bo]

31. Ok, I thank you again for pointing me in the right direction. Shocking is the mother of all

understatements.

And this is after Commander AWOL - 2001-2007. I'll probably be dead from heart failure after researching those figures.

2008 Direct costs = 900 billion. VA + indirect costs not included and said to be expected to exceed direct costs (900 billion). $2 TRILLION

(Of course Veterans and the injured MUST be cared for, we owe them and their families and is the high price we pay for these wars).

JHC!

2009 680 billion + up to 361 billion in additional spending + an unknown $$ amount spent "black budget" military spending programs (and we have no effing clue what that figure could be, a billion, a trillion?) = 1-2 TRILLION?????

2010 534 billion + 664 billion but no mention if the so-called "black budget" program costs being included = 1-2 TRILLION?

2011 "predicted budget" - another TRILLION or 2??!!

And, like mentioned in that article there's interest from past and present wars, etc.

Am I figuring this out right? My god, what are we doing?

What kind of government would rather cut/substantially reduce mandatory spending (which benefits "The People") so
it can continue to finance military/defense operations at the expense of The People.

[JackRiddler]

22. Yeah, what's $80 billion here or there? Or a little itty-bitty hole in the head?

[24601]

21. Intel is a bargain compared to conventional forces. And when

you cut those forces, you are reducing your response flexibility. Therefore you can't afford to be as surprised as when you have the forces required for covering unexpected contingencies. So if you want to make real defense cuts, you should first pay the smaller price of enhancing your intelligence capabilities. If you don't, then don't act surprised when you get surprised.

[JackRiddler]

23. "Intel" (covert warfare) is a threat generator.

Cut out the wars and the empire and the thousand think-tanks seeking enemies to justify their existence, and voila, no one wants to blow up Americans any more.

[24601]

24. Intel and covert warfare are not the same thing. They are very

different actions, done by very different people. The fact that CIA has covert action forces doesn't make them the same as intel collectors and analysts any more that intel forces in DoD are the same as Special Ops Command soldiers, sailors, airmen & marines.

CIA intel performs as directed by the DNI. Covert action operates with a Presidential Finding directly to the CIA director and the DNI is merely informed.

I stand by the premise that having intel is a lot cheaper than not having it. It's like education - if you think education is expensive, measure the cost of ignorance. It's also like the prevention part of health care - a lot cheaper than treating the disease you could have avoided.

[JackRiddler]

25. And how do you know how the money's spent? What's your clearance?

Wishful bollocks: "Covert action operates with a Presidential Finding directly to the CIA director and the DNI is merely informed."

[24601]

26. Don't you remember the fight which ended up with DNI (Blair)

resigning? He wasn't even allowed to appoint his own DNI Rep to allied nations. CIA Director Panetta went over his head to the White House because he wanted the DNI rep to be the CIA COS. The WH told Blair to shut up and color. It was clarified at that point that the DNI doesn't run manage covert ops.

You don't need a clearance for the things I discuss here - it's all open source. In this case the Washington Post had good political coverage: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111603636.html

(WpPo 17 Nov 2009)

"On Thursday, it was disclosed that Jones had decided all three issues."

"CIA station chiefs would continue to serve concurrently as DNI representatives -- a well-publicized CIA win. Blair will name the intelligence community representative to NSC meetings, but the White House has retained the right to call CIA personnel -- a not-publicized DNI win. On covert actions and their oversight, the CIA would continue to deal directly with the White House but must report oversight findings also to the DNI."

Whoo Hooo! After it's all over, the DNI gets to read CIA's own oversight findings of CIA Covert Action - whatta perk!

[JackRiddler]

29. Education Department 2010: $56 billion

Not including the year's stimulus spending, but that was extraordinary.

[BeFree]

32. Structural change in 18 months

Obama's guy makes some changes.

James R. Clapper Jr., now the director of national intelligence, secured approval to release the figure.

"I pushed through and got Secretary Gates to approve revelation of the Military Intelligence Program budget," Clapper told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in July.

[leveymg]

33. Here's a more detailed breakdown of where the Intel $$$s are going:

FY2010 Intelligence Budget: http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/budget/index.html
Total (in millions) $80,000
DOD $67,000
Other Agencies $13,000
NIP - National Intelligence Program $53,000
CIA $10,000
FBI $3,000
DHS / USCG / IAIP $100
INR $100
Treasury $100
DOE $200
NSA $15,000
NRO $15,000
NGA $2,000
DIA $2,000
ex-DARP $6,000
Military Intelligence Program (MIP) $27,000
Army $10,000
Navy $5,000
USAF $10,000
other $2,000
September 2010 guesstimate, in millions <$,000,000>

[24601]

35. Important to note that the breakdown is a guess - of course the

originator says "educated" guess - of how the money is broken down. I'd question certain assumptions since NSA has a large chunk of non-intelligence mission. The NSA's Information Assurance mission secures our own classified data information systems. NSA develops/approves all the crypto equipment and produces all the keying material.

There can be an immediate savings. Contractors make up 27% of the personnel and eat up 49% of the IC personnel dollars. Authorize one for one conversions with adjustments in the manpower ceilings and you reduce personnel costs a few billion.

[ensho]

36. most of it is makework

nt