Spies for Hire
Last October, after years of keeping the U.S. intelligence budget under wraps, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) revealed just how much the United States spends each year on spying and analysis: $43.5 billion. If military intelligence is included, that number likely tops $50 billion. The revelation came just a few months after a DNI ...
Last October, after years of keeping the U.S. intelligence budget under wraps, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) revealed just how much the United States spends each year on spying and analysis: $43.5 billion. If military intelligence is included, that number likely tops $50 billion. The revelation came just a few months after a DNI official let it slip at a defense industry conference that a whopping 70 percent of the intelligence budget goes to private contractors. With the 2007 budget nearly double the figure in 1998, when it was last officially disclosed, spying has become one of the fastest-growing businesses in the United States.
Last October, after years of keeping the U.S. intelligence budget under wraps, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) revealed just how much the United States spends each year on spying and analysis: $43.5 billion. If military intelligence is included, that number likely tops $50 billion. The revelation came just a few months after a DNI official let it slip at a defense industry conference that a whopping 70 percent of the intelligence budget goes to private contractors. With the 2007 budget nearly double the figure in 1998, when it was last officially disclosed, spying has become one of the fastest-growing businesses in the United States.
But having so much sensitive intelligence work outsourced to private defense companies raises one obvious fear: With so many people in the know, what’s to keep state secrets from being leaked to people who shouldn’t know? Apparently, not much. The Pentagon’s chief information officer, John Grimes, recently told a room of top military contractors that they must improve their internal security, according to National Defense magazine. Foreign spies are getting bits of information about the U.S. military from defense companies, Grimes reportedly said, adding that "our networks are being bled … to folks we don’t want to be bled to."
Young government analysts being poached by defense companies with far bigger payrolls may be partially to blame. "It’s very troubling that the next generation has been raised in a corporate culture," says R.J. Hillhouse, who writes the popular intelligence blog The Spy Who Billed Me. "One changes loyalty every few years according to the best offer, as opposed to the old timers who [were] in the U.S. government." After a recent rash of U.S. military technology leaks to China by rogue defense contractors, it may be time for the private sector to get out of the espionage business.
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