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The Straits Times (Singapore)
70 % of the est US$60 b intelligence budget outsourced
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WASHINGTON - AT 8AM every day, the White House receives the so-called Threat Matrix.This is a highly classified status report beamed from the National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC), the electronic hub of the US intelligence community and a vital part of its security infrastructure
.Established by President George W. Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the NCTC is manned 24/7 by officers and analysts from all 16 agencies of the US intelligence community as well as private sector contract employees.
In fact, more than half the people running the centre, located at an unmarked office complex in northern Virginia, work for dozens of different big and small companies.The NCTC control room itself - loaded with sophisticated communications and computer gear - is designed by engineers from Walt Disney Imagineering, whose main business is developing theme parks.Sensitive intelligence tasks traditionally performed by government employees working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency, the Pentagon and others are now being routinely farmed out.
'Spying for hire has become a way of life in 21st century America,' said a new book documenting the trend with eye-opening details:The number of contract employees at the CIA, for example, now exceeds its full-time workforce of 17,500. The CIA now has its own investment fund, called In-Q-Tel, which buys equity in companies that produce software and other products with intelligence operations.Substantial portions of the President's Daily Brief (PDB) are based on the work of private sector analysts.
'For full disclosure,' said intelligence expert and blogger R.J. Hillhouse, 'the PDB really should look more like Nascar with corporate logos plastered all over it.'Put together, it is an astounding amount and range of operations - from interrogations to tracking Al-Qaeda operatives - that are outsourced.The outsourcing amounted to over 70 per cent of the estimated $60US billion ($82S billion) intelligence budget in 2006, said Mr Tim Shorrock,
the writer of Spies For Hire: The Secret World Of Intelligence Outsourcing.The market, which Mr Shorrock reckoned is now worth $50US billion a year, is serviced by major defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin as well as small, venture capital-funded technology shops.The trend has raised concerns, such as over the fact that there are no standards determining which activities should be farmed out, said Mr Shorrock, an investigative reporter.Whether a task like interrogation should be outsourced is hotly debated, especially after it emerged that civilian contractors were involved in some of the horrendous torture and abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison
in Iraq.In fact, some top Pentagon aides have openly admitted that they have no idea how much outsourcing is going on.Also, there is little congressional oversight of the process, Mr Shorrock said while discussing his book at the Washington-based Institute of Policy Studies on Monday.Not all find the outsourcing worrisome.'The fact that we can have a professional intelligence organisation outside of the government to support the government is no more offensive to me than the fact that we have 80 per cent of our military communications travelling on commercial satellites,' retired Vice-Admiral Herbert Browne was quoted as saying in the book.'I find it very healthy for the nation,' added Admiral Browne, who left the military to join a defence division of AT&T.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100022153&docId=l:794482296&start=2
the above is not full article.pl help post the full one here.
appeared in STimes 21.05.2008 p20 or 22
my questions:Is it safe for US to outsource so much intelligence work?
can SG learn somethings from this pattern?
Copyright 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
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The Straits Times (Singapore)May 21, 2008 Wednesday579 wordsUS outsources spying jobs to private sector;
Trend raises concerns over standards and congressional oversight of processBhagyashree Garekar, US Correspondent -
What we learn is that besides using clones, lionnoisy has learnt noting about making concise posts and relies on information spamming in posts that nobody bothers to read.
I didn't even bother to read this post once I saw the length of it, just scroll down to type this. LOL.
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how does it matter us -
guan wo men she me pi shi?