Intelligence Spending: Be Sure to Read the Fine Print

Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, said on Oct. 28 that Fiscal 2008's intelligence budget was $47.5 billion. But a Baltimore Sun article admitted that this does not include tactical military intelligence. Ten years ago, the TIARA Project (Tactical Intelligence And Related Activities) totaled more than $10 billion. This means the full U.S. intelligence budget exceeds $60 billion.

Another Associated Press article stated that DOD agencies consume 80 percent, or about $37 billion of the total that does not include tactical. Since National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency are less than $5 billion in size, this probably means the National Reconnaissance Office (nation's largest by budget) must be well above $10 billion, while the National Security Agency must be approaching, if not exceeding $10 billion. Feel safe yet?

Enhancing JTTF and Domestic Intelligence from Space

OK, I'll just cite the original Wall Street Journal article here on Department of Homeland Security getting access to spy-satellite intelligence, and refer you to my EE Times blog as to what this means re: different intelligence agencies have different rules for sharing info, they all operate from space, and who keeps Michael Chertoff's mitts off stuff he shouldn't have? Certainly not Alberto Gonzales -- or our president for that matter!

Here's why you should care: the Denver Police Intelligence Bureau's scandal in the late 1990s and early 2000s for reviving Red Squad-era dissident intelligence files, actually constituted precisely what former Attorney General John Ashcroft wanted local intelligence bureaus to do. And since Ashcroft asked the Joint Terrorism Task Forces to serve as liaisons for putting intelligence of questionable veracity into law-enforcement files, well, we can be sure this will escalate by a factor of ten now that Department of Homeland Security can gain access to intelligence from space. Don't look for FISA restrictions -- Congress has given Bush everything he wanted in FISA bypass, and then some. Be afraid. Be very afraid.