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Classified US Intel Budget Revealed Via Powerpoint
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Jun 11, 2007 09:05 AM
from the woops-they-did-it-again dept.
from the woops-they-did-it-again dept.
Atario writes "In a holdover from the Cold War when the number really did matter to national security, the size of the US national intelligence budget remains one of the government's most closely guarded secrets. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the highest intelligence agency in the country that oversees all federal intelligence agencies, appears to have inadvertently released the keys to that number in an unclassified PowerPoint presentation now posted on the website of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). By reverse engineering the numbers in an underlying data element embedded in the presentation, it seems that the total budget of the 16 US intelligence agencies in fiscal year 2005 was $60 billion, almost 25% higher than previously believed."
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Old Jedi Mind Trick (Score:5, Funny)
Guess the DoD changed their security policy (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's been taken down though, slashdotted before the first post even...
Re:Guess the DoD changed their security policy (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA, it soundly like somebody forgot to strip the hidden data.
This right here is proof as far as I'm concerned that anybody who seriously thinks that the US Government staged 9/11, shot down TWA 800, killed JFK or faked the Apollo landings really needs to have their head examined.
Seriously. This seems like the third or forth story along these lines in as many weeks. Recall the Coalition Provisional Authority leaks because somebody couldn't disable the previous versions feature of word. And now this?
I'm sorry, but our Government is too incompetent to manage any of the things above. I kinda wish they were in a way... then maybe Iraq wouldn't be such a mess, Katrina would have been handled correctly and 9/11 wouldn't have happened.
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Re:Guess the DoD changed their security policy (Score:5, Insightful)
Except that the "mistakes" like these are done by the government, so that you would think exactly that. You have just fallen into their trap!
Not really, but your logic makes about as much sense as the conspiracy theorists. Just because one idiot who works for the government screwed up, doesn't imply anything about other people, and other agencies? Why would it? Just like saying someone working for one company screwed up, so all companies must be incompetent, and have been for 40 years? Do you not think that sounds screwy as well?
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Re:Guess the DoD changed their security policy (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat [wikipedia.org]
If they can successfully go to those lengths, how hard is it to accidentally-on-purpose leave some bogus figures in a Powerpoint presentation?
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Re:Guess the DoD changed their security policy (Score:5, Insightful)
Right... because some office worker is dumb (or simply didn't know the need to strip the data), it then follows that EVERYONE in the government is just as dumb / incompetent.
Very good logic there.
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Re:Guess the DoD changed their security policy (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you have to go into a binary editor and see the data?
Seems to me that this shows the dangers of a proprietary file format.
Will the US Government now have to comb through nasty binary formats to check what data is retained and what data isn't?
It would be nice if these file formats where open and documented wouldn't? Sure would make doing security checks on the files a lot simpler.
Just some food for thought.
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Re:Guess the DoD changed their security policy (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Guess the DoD changed their security policy (Score:4, Insightful)
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Stargate (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Stargate (Score:5, Interesting)
I've always been amused by the premise of this franchise. It comes from one a (supposedly) non-fiction book called The Stargate Conspiracy, which claims that a secret cabal is bringing back alien technology through a portal dug up in Egypt, and trading it for money and power. The amusing thing is that the TV show makes the same people who were the evil conspirators in the book into the good guys!
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Re:Stargate (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, if you were behind the evil conspiracy revealed in that book, wouldn't something like this be the ideal way to defuse the book and its accusations?
Duh
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Link to the actual PowerPoint slideshow (Score:3, Informative)
Outdated link (Score:5, Informative)
It's now been posted [fas.org] by the Federation of American Scientists.
There are, however, a number of other contracting briefs and presentations posted here [dia.mil]
Parent
Important information from the article... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not because of incompetence, corruption, waste, or secrecy - though all those are certainly elements to varying degrees - but in reality because of the wide variety of agencies and activities that fall under the guise of "intelligence" [intelligence.gov].
The article itself notes, correctly:
This top line $60 billion figure is 25% above the estimated $48 billion budget for FY 08. It is quite probable that this total figure was not even known by the government until recently. Greater control and oversight of the Intelligence Community budget was a hallmark of the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 that created the position of the Director of National Intelligence and gave it the mandate to get an overview of the entire amount spent on intelligence government-wide. To this end, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has recently gathered all parts of the previously fragmented Intelligence Community budget together for the first time as part of its Intelligence Resource Information System (IRIS). In the report from the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence released last Thursday, the committee praised the Office of the Director of Intelligence for creating a "single budget system called the Intelligence Resource Information System." It also recognizes their efforts in helping create what "will be used for further inquiry by the Committee's budget and audit staffs and will be a baseline that allows the Congress and DNI to derive trend data from future reports."
Earlier, lower estimates were most likely only included what fell directly under the Director of Central Intelligence and which would have omitted parts of NSA, NRO. A total Intelligence Community number, with the Intelligence Community as defined by 50 U.S.C. 401a(4), would also now include the various military intelligence services (e.g. Army Intel, Navy Intel, etc.), each with its respective weapon technology intelligence exploitation shop. A total budget would also include a large portion of the budget of the Department of Homeland Security which was previously fragment across multiple government agencies. A $60 billion government-wide Intelligence Community budget is not at all out of line with the post 9/11 organizational reality. It seems that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is just now getting a clear picture of the fragmented intelligence community budget.
When you're dealing with sixteen separate agencies, including elements from the Department of Defense, to say something like "intelligence budget" is almost meaningless. What's pure intelligence? What's national defense? What is a mix? In fact, it often comes down to what some particular task or program is "anointed" by management. Different areas get reorganized and shuffled into different organizational structures. To say nothing of the fact that the addition of DHS to the Intelligence Community was the largest government reorganization in over a half-century, since the creation of the Department of Defense and CIA by the National Security Act of 1947.
Shuffle more, and you can probably make the "intelligence" budget appear lower. But the truth is that "it seems that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is just now getting a clear picture of the fragmented intelligence community budget."
And that should be a good thing.
On a different note, revealing classified or sensitive information by improper handling of technology solutions is a perennial problem, and it still floors me that the vetting and release process doesn't properly capture things like this (though they've gotten MUCH better).
Re:Important information from the article... (Score:4, Informative)
Um, yes, that's what this entire issue is about.
The blog that contains this article [thespywhobilledme.com] is called "The Spy Who Billed Me: Outsourcing the War on Terror", and the presentation itself [fas.org] is titled "Procuring the Future", and is entirely dedicated to contractors and contract acquisition, and the fact that the IC couldn't function or do its job without the variety of speciality contractors and services. The way the IC budget was "deduced" was by seeing dollars spent on contractors, and the knowledge that constituted "70%" of spending.
Yeah, the contract issue in general is one of concern, but, like all things, it's not simply "good" or "bad"; it has benefits, drawbacks, advantages, and problems, and the key is proper management of such resources. Keep in mind that all contractor issues aren't "outsourcing" in the way some like to think: it includes all manner of acquisition of capabilities and services, which also necessarily includes labor.
Parent
Compared to? (Score:3, Insightful)
Does anyone know how much that budget was back in 2000?
RTFA ! (Score:5, Informative)
third column for 100% :
95 1850 2643
96 1950 2786
97 1800 2571
98 1775 2536
99 2150 3071
00 1754 2506
01 2170 3100
02 3140 4486
03 4203 6004
04 4049 5784
05 4200 6000
06 3964 5663
So, from 1995 to 2005, an increase of 227%, correspondig to an annual increase of 8,5%.
And, from 2000 to 2005, an increase of 239%, corresponding to an annual increase of 19,1%.
Parent
Re:RTFA ! (Score:5, Interesting)
third column for 100%
Basically, their budget doubled as a result.
Thanks for RTFA and giving me the bit I wanted
Parent
At least, insescurity works for the little guy (Score:4, Insightful)
Quote from ID4 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Quote from ID4 (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't actually think they spend $20,000.00 on a hammer, $30,000.00 on a toilet seat do you?
Well, yeah, they actually probably do, but only in no-bid contracts awarded to whatever company the Director of the Federal agency requesting the contract worked for previously. ;)
Parent
Re:Quote from ID4 (Score:5, Informative)
1. How right you are about the no-bid, money-wasting thing--it's happening right now in Iraq, where millions have been wasted and in many cases, little reconstruction to show for it [coastalpost.com] (sorry about the Coastal Post link--it was in major news publications a couple of weeks ago, but this is the most relevant recent hit in a Google News "Bechtel Iraq" search).
2. Isn't it sad that you have to say "probably," because in so many cases, it seems like these huge taxpayer decisions are made without anyone knowing about them?
Parent
Here's something to consider... (Score:5, Interesting)
Every government on earth (and the "bad guys" as well), knew the size of the budget. Or did someone think Putin was going to look at this powerpoint, smack his forehead with his hand and say "ah ha! now I know!"?
running the numbers (Score:5, Insightful)
The only people this was a secret from was the American people.
It's important to remember that $60BN doesn't spend itself, and it doesn't spend itself in small numbers. A whole lot of Americans knew that a whole lot of money was being spent on (essentially) nothing. It's also important to remember that this money mostly goes to defense contractors, and most of that goes to the upper management. Make no mistake: the rich don't spend in proportion to their income. They hoard. This money is being turned into silver spoons for a whole lot of terrorism-profiteers.
Fun trivia: $60BN is enough to give *every* child and adult in the US $200; about half a week's wages for people working minimum wage (before the roughly 1/3rd that goes to taxes, of course.)
It's enough to employ (are you sitting down?) one point two MILLION people in $50k/year jobs.
Now sit there and explain to me why New Orleans is still a disaster area, why 10 million kids in the US don't get enough food to eat, ~1% of the population (3.5 million people) is homeless (third of those are children), and why poor residents living in New England have their federal assistance for home heating cut.
This nation's spending priorities are so out of whack it is abhorrent.
Parent
Re:running the numbers (Score:5, Insightful)
Because, sir, if you give a man $200, you feed him for half a week. If you keep up the hegemony status of that man's nation, and use a successful war to spur on the economy (as successful wars always do), you feed him for a lifetime. Remember that although there may be poverty in America, there is nothing resembling an actual humanitarian crisis due to an outright failure of the economy to sell food where it's needed - and there will never be one, so long as America remains the superpower.
As a Louisiana resident, I know the Katrina disaster response was woefully inadequate and an embarrassment to our nation. But that isn't to say that the federal government should have any role in the long-term rebuilding of the city. The worst thing New Orleans, or in fact anywhere, could have is handouts. All they do is provide a source of capital that nobody can compete with, and therefore nobody bothers to work towards restoring an economy.
Parent
Re:running the numbers (Score:5, Insightful)
WTF are you eating? I spend $80 a week at the grocery store, and split that with my SO. That's including meat every night, and 2 or 3 6 packs of nice beer. You really need to re-examine your eating habits.
Parent
Name that quote (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Name that quote (Score:5, Funny)
Ooh, ooh, I know!
Part of the "decorative pattern" on Bush's private toilet-paper.
I think the silly, meaningless sentence you quoted comes from the first roll, ninth sheet.
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Re:Name that quote (Score:5, Funny)
Surely no government of a free and democratic country would be based on such a radical ideal. Give people information like that and next thing you know they'll want some voice in how that money gets spent, and that way lies anarchy.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That's it?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
Only $60B ???!!!
Personally, I'd rather see us spend $120B on intelligence and get it RIGHT than only spend $60B and get it WRONG and end up going to war based on that faulty intelligence at a price tag of $82B up-front and more annually!
Politics and loss of life aside, it's just better economics!
Re:That's it?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's been said before, but I guess I need to say it again: There was absolutely nothing wrong with the intelligence. The Bush administration just didn't care whether Iraq had WDMs or not (nor whether they had any links with Al-Qaida, etc.); they decided to invade, and so they did. All the 'intelligence' they submitted to justify their decision beforehand was stuff that the intelligence agencies had rejected as false or inaccurate again and again. That they say that the intelligence was bad afterwards is only adding insult to injury.
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Re:That's it?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
Of course, a Powerpoint presentation on WMD rarely goes astray.
Parent
Misinformation (Score:5, Insightful)
Megatrends: Cold War Era - 21st Century (Score:4, Insightful)
Great Budget (Score:4, Funny)
Ho Hum (Score:5, Funny)
Secrecy, often as not, is less about keeping the bad guys in the dark than about avoiding public scrutiny.
Re:Ho Hum (Score:4, Insightful)
When I worked for the USAF during the cold war, spying on americans was illegal. Evidently, those in charge now believe that spying on Americans is acceptable now. [aclu.org]
Currently, the US intelligence infrastructure seems to have new missions.
It gathers intelligence from and about the American people. [washingtonpost.com]
It makes justifications for actions of the current administration. [tpmcafe.com]
I thinking that we should a lot more information about the amount of our taxes that are being used for these purposes, don't you?
Parent
The solution is clear (Score:5, Funny)
Billions here, billions there... (Score:5, Insightful)
News organizations constantly report million and billion dollar budgets without providing context. On the radio and on TV, for example, the announcer usually takes exceptional care to pause, then spit out the word as if it's a death-defying number: billion.
No one even *knows* what a billion is. Can you conceptualize one billion things? I don't know what a billion is. I can't even fathom it. Anyone who tells you they can is lying. All we know is that a billion is more than a million and less than a trillion.
So, for context, that $60,000,000,000 dollars that was mentioned was for the USA 2005 budget, which was about $2,400,000,000,000.* That's only 2.5% of the budget, and if you're a citizen of the US you'd better hope and pray that your country is spending at least 2% of the budget on intelligence in these times.
* See, you had to think about it for a second to figure out how big that number is. (In newsspeak, that's $2.4 TRILLLLLIIIIONNNN)
conceptualization (Score:4, Insightful)
A billion things is a thousand millions of things. The decimal orders of magnitude, scientific notation and other notation systems have been developed precisely to represent such large numbers. This is sufficient to allow for some pretty significant conclusions to be drawn about a billion in relation to other numbers.
When you say conceptualize, I think you mean count.
Parent
Re:I knew it (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I knew it (Score:5, Insightful)
I have always been saying that MS products have no place in government
Yes, because this is all Microsoft's fault. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the incompetence of the person/people who created this Powerpoint show and left classified data in the version that was released to the public.
If only the Feds were using an open-source solution. An open-source slide show program would have been smart enough to realize that they left classified data in the document and would have alerted them prior to the document being released to the public.
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Re:I knew it (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I knew it (Score:5, Insightful)
No, while I'd usually agree with you, this is a glaring example of why more people in government should use MS products. Can we get PowerPoint installed on more desktops in the Justice Department?
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Re:Reverse Engineered? (Score:5, Insightful)
To quote Bullet Tooth Tony:
"Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity...."
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)