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
News Article Index
Intelligence budget secrecy is the cornerstone of an outmoded classification
system that promotes mediocrity in U.S. intelligence. What honest
intelligence professional would endorse the claim of classifiers that
publication of a single budget number would "damage national security"?
But bureaucratic secrecy continues to trump analytical integrity,
and even the aggregate annual intelligence budget figure remains classified.
Nevertheless, it is possible to establish the broad parameters of
intelligence spending over the past several decades based exclusively
on official sources. An initial compilation of such sources is available
here.
A look back at the rise and fall (and rise again) of intelligence
spending puts into perspective the often-voiced complaint that U.S.
intelligence suffered "severe" budget cuts in the 1990s. It turns
out that even at its lowest point in the 1990s, the intelligence budget
was still 80% higher (in real terms) than it had been in 1980.
