Secrecy News: Intelligence Budget Data; Self-Critique of the CIA
Secrecy News: Intelligence
Budget Data; Self-Critique of the CIA
About
Secrecy News
SECRECY NEWS is an email publication of
the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
Project on Government Secrecy. It provides
informal coverage of new developments in secrecy,
security and intelligence policies, as well
as links to new acquisitions on the Federation
of American Scientists web site. It
is published 2 to 3 times a week, or as events
warrant. Secrecy
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In an implicit repudiation of the Director of Central
Intelligence's budget secrecy policies, the Pentagon has published
proposed 2005 spending figures for classified intelligence
research and development programs and for procurement of
classified equipment by defense intelligence agencies.
According to the DCI, public disclosure of a single aggregate
figure for all intelligence-related spending would damage national
security and compromise intelligence sources and methods. (And
even fifty year old budget data remain classified at CIA.)
But although DCI Tenet swore under penalty of perjury that such
secrecy was necessary, his views on the subject do not command
respect, not even at the Pentagon, which has included more
detailed and current intelligence spending figures in its latest
budget request.
Thus, the Pentagon is asking for close to $4.1 billion in
intelligence research and development funds and $544 million in
procurement funds in FY 2005 "for classified equipment procured by
the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence
Agency, National Security Agency, and the Counterintelligence
Field Activity." The figures represent a slight decrease from the
current year.
The figures themselves are fairly opaque and do not begin to reveal
the substance of the programs they fund. Which is why there are
no grounds for classifying them, let alone a much broader
aggregation of all intelligence spending government-wide.
The intelligence budget data sheets were published on the DoD Comptroller
web site, and were reported on February 26 by John Liang in InsideDefense.com.
They are excerpted
here.
DDI MISCIK ON THE STATE OF ANALYSIS AT CIA
CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence (DDI) Jami A. Miscik presented
her view of the "state of analysis" at CIA in a February 11 speech
that was alternately defensive and self-critical.
"First and foremost, you need to know our integrity has held
firm," she declared. "Our integrity goes hand-in-hand with our
analytic objectivity."
But she admitted analytical failures, such as the continued
reliance on an intelligence source that had been tagged as a
fabricator, while noting that CIA had discovered and acknowledged
the lapse at its own initiative.
Ms. Miscik expressed uncertainty about the proper format for the
President's Daily Brief and the relationship between the National
Intelligence Council and the Directorate of Intelligence.
She also observed that analysts in CIA's Directorate of
Intelligence are "younger, more junior and more inexperienced than
ever before."
And she announced "a new requirement for a one-day Tradecraft
Refresher Course that will be mandatory for all analysts and
managers.... This is that serious."
The text of the "DDI's State of Analysis Speech" was obtained by Secrecy
News and is now available
here (11 pages, 2 MB PDF file).
