The Case For Reining In Washington's Out-Of-Control Intelligence Community

Time:

No one intended to create a monster bureaucracy after 9/11 -- Washington has always thrown money and people at a problem rather than good ideas. But now someone has to seriously calculate the damage the outsourcing of intelligence is causing. The story I keep hearing over and over is that the bright young people who came to Washington to fight terrorism -- civil servants and contractors alike -- have become disillusioned, and they will soon turn away from idealism and begin to transform their jobs into comfortable careers. In the case of the contractors, it means more contracts and more contractors. It's all the worse because there are now contractors writing their own contracts.

Read the whole story: Time

Comments

[mbaty]

10:05 AM on 07/21/2010

What happened to the Dana Priest article? Front page one day, buried the next...along with all those comments...

[ProudMilVet]

04:30 AM on 07/21/2010

The problem is there are just too many duplicate agencies competing for the same intelligence & not communicating with one another. The CIA, the FBI, the DIA, the NSA, the Dept. of Homeland Security,the Secret Service, the ATF, ect. ect. Each with their own Director, & they are all supposed to be overseen by a Director of National Intelligence. Also, this country does not know when to shut up ! Everything is blabbed to the media & hence to our enemies. Someone correct me if i'm wrong but i believe a lot of other countries even keep the identity of their intelligence directors a secret. Such as MI5 in the UK, the British Secret Service. In this country each new CIA Director nominee has to be all over Television, the Newspapers & the Internet while the Fools in Congress argue whether to confirm him or not & of course it has to be made into a political thing with some members of Congress asking for classified information right out in the open ! I don't think "Intelligence" has ever been one of this countries strong suits !

[luckyone77]

01:50 AM on 07/21/2010

Quoting the article: "The problem is that I came away from these talks with the impression that the post-9/11 workforce is bored and even adrift — at least in the sense that there are too many people chasing too little hard intelligence."

All of these people working on intelligence and we STILL have not charged anyone with the 9/11 attacks. Why not? Why are they sifting through our library records and monitoring our phone calls instead of finding out who had the capability to put nanothermite explosives in the WTC buildings? Surely it cannot be that difficult to find if you look in the right place, obviously its not to be found in Iraq or Afganistan, and probably not Iran either. How were they able to wire bldg 7 with explosives and bring it down the same day as the main towers? Doesn't this suggest foreknowledge and prior planning? Who had access? Who had motive? Who profited? These are normal routine questions that would be asked in any serious investigation. Why aren't they looking for the real terrorists instead of torturing confessions out of a rag-tag bunch of "usual suspects" against whom the evidence is so flimsy that they cannot even be brought to a public trial? Or is it because the real terrorists are running the whole show?

[caffeineod]

03:17 AM on 07/21/2010

As the Hollywood movie guy said...hell, you can't stand the truth......I suspect if the truth of 9/11 were told it would be catastrophic for our government and Israel....lots of stuff put out just never made sense...best not to think much about it....

[Wrongwaywillis]

12:03 AM on 07/21/2010

Just to reiterate what I said yesterday, in the land of intelligence the only thing that is a secret is who is the other guys spie(s). We read their mail, they read ours. The only thing this huge mega system of redundantcys has accomplished is more comparable data and less control and fluidity to its timely revelation. But in these troubling times of economic uncertainty let's not add to the unemployment figures by rushing off and firing the best portion of these contractors, at least not yet. In fact let's make it even worse ( sarcasm here) by requiring that these firms hire at least seven million more Americans by the end of next week.

[StevieRae]

09:55 PM on 07/20/2010

I fully expected the "big government" trollers and tea baggers to be all over this one.

87 posting in one day on a REAL example of uncontrolled and reckless government expansion worthy of criticism, not just from extremists.

There must be some other more "sexy" things going on today???

[freecitizen1946]

08:44 PM on 07/20/2010

America's body politick is generally impervious to appeals on moral grounds when it comes to maintaining the trappings of empire. Obtaining and maintaining an empire breeds many enemies and sooner or later every empire has to come to terms with the fact that we're working against the immutable law of diminishing returns. The input of treasure and blood simply out weighs the returns and this is especially true to those of us down here who bare the costs and offer our flesh in the imperial cause.

It has become more than obvious that the corporate rats and profiteers know the score. They have effectively seceded from the union, but not before having taken the money and run, leaving us holding the bag, a bag full of hatred, oil sledge and debt.

It now for us to decide whether we can still afford our empire of ease, having been laid destitute by the fleeing criminal class.

[DuPageDem]

08:02 PM on 07/20/2010

Spies do one thing very, very well: Justify their own existence by finding boogiemen, be they cardboard missiles rolling in Red Square or a cardboard terrorist under every bed.

[MMRDO]

09:15 PM on 07/20/2010

Those missiles were very real, so are the terrorists, anyone who believes otherwise needs their head checked.

[luckyone77]

01:54 AM on 07/21/2010

Oh they are real all right. But they are not who they are telling us they are.

[caffeineod]

03:23 AM on 07/21/2010

so, a known group of criminal religious zealots hatched and carried out a plot to destroy some landmark American builidings has been the justification for the deaths of thousands of Americans hundreds of thousands Iraqis and Afghans and now Pakistanis...yet, our own government was warned about the pending attacks and CHOSE to do nothing...even as they were occuring! 3 trillion dollars and now we find we are no better off than before....one person;s terrorist is another's freedom fighter...better policies would prevent terrorists...to many Americans are terrorists. we have larger weapons...

[Countess]

05:32 PM on 07/20/2010

The people who run things in Washington DC have outsourced their brains and souls to the largest bidders so Why not privatize the congress so they can have plaques with their corporate sponsor on their desks? Just an idea.

[OlongapoEd]

04:34 PM on 07/20/2010

Those on the right often like to pretend that the US's secret pol...er, umm "intelligence" agencies are woefully shackled and should be allowed to do as they d@mn well please (which is very nearly the case already).

[MMRDO]

09:14 PM on 07/20/2010

Intelligence by its own charter is all foreign, FBI are the only Agency with any real power or assets to work domestically.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

11:45 PM on 07/20/2010

Finally. Somebody who gets it.

The telecoms didn't spy on us for the Bush Administration. And Candidate Obama didn't really vote to give immunity to the telecoms for spying upon us for the Bush Administration.

And there are no agencies with any real power or assets to work domestically except the FBI.

It's good to see that you understand this so clearly.

And by the way, I also think that President Obama is doing a great job and I can't wait to vote for him again.

[dragonladywaltham]

04:05 PM on 07/20/2010

Who doesn't want big government? The Teabaggers have a bone to pick with Dubaya.

[MMRDO]

03:09 PM on 07/20/2010

There are certain things that should not be privatized, police/intelligence work is one of them. If you need a civilian contractor to assist you that's different but we should have the majority of this work done by government agencies, not private ones.

[AyeChart]

03:04 PM on 07/20/2010

They've already been reined in. Obama's hampered them sufficiently that they are afraid to do their job.

[Fattonecat]

05:52 PM on 07/20/2010

Still haven't found that new eye chart yet huh ?

[BikeFreak]

06:06 PM on 07/20/2010

What ARE you talking about?

And no name calling. Just give facts and details and cite your sources please.

[StevieRae]

02:51 PM on 07/20/2010

How safe do you feel?

10's of thousands of gov't employees who passed the highest security clearance have been allowed to keep it after resigning and going with a private profit making contractor.

The frightening maze charts in the WashPost overwhelms one into asking who the hell is in charge? They figuratively demonstrate the lack of clear accountability between agencies and contractors who have "responsibility for using actionable information to avert a terrorist event.

Tell all those employees who earned their clearance to come back home and work in their gov't agencies. Federal government must be the driver of intelligence not this monster created out of an era of fear where patriotism was used as a weapon for anyone who questioned its creation.

Providing top secret clearance to the private sector should be the exception, not the norm it's become.

[studmoose]

02:41 PM on 07/20/2010

Cut costs... ONLY spy on GOPers and Tea party folks.

They are the ones who helped promote this beast through the GWB era and have frequently said, "If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry for?"

[MMRDO]

02:53 PM on 07/20/2010

So we should just ignore al-Qaeda and their affiliates, okay smart guy...

[studmoose]

03:05 PM on 07/20/2010

The remaining GOP and Tea Party are the threats to America.

[BikeFreak]

06:07 PM on 07/20/2010

I fear my own government far before I fear Al Qaeda.

[caffeineod]

03:25 AM on 07/21/2010

Well, that seems to work for the GOP...Nixon had substantial lists as did Reagan and Bush...

[Core-Sample]

02:36 PM on 07/20/2010

Stop it now. Only fund what may be needed. Keep the Republicans out.