Someone asked me whom I thought was dumber, the FBI or the CIA. I go with the FBI and yet they have emerged from the 9-11 commission report unscathed. The report recommends against setting up a separate security agency along the lines of the British MI5, thinking the FBI can be trusted to change its culture from cops and robbers to spy vs. spy.
Our friend and CIA officer Brian Kelley, speaking here last year at the Raleigh International Spy Conference, made his first public appearance after it leaked that the FBI had nearly ruined his life thinking he was the traitor who turned out to be Robert Hanssen. A glimpse of the FBI culture was offered in the 60 Minutes segment on Kelley’s ordeal. Let’s be kind and just say the FBI did not look good. Ironically, today, Kelley is helping train the FBI in spy techniques as the Bureau is attempting to alter its culture to concentrate more on its counter-intelligence duties. Let’s hope it is not too little too late. Since the CIA is not mandated to operate within the US, it is clear in the Kelley case, and more profoundly, in the failure to protect the US before 9-11, that the FBI let us down.
The 9-11 commission calls for the creation of a national security czar to coordinate the 15 or so intelligence agencies operating today. This seems nave. The CIA was created for the same purpose in 1947 to report directly to the president so he could untangle the competing data from various intelligence sources. The new position would be Cabinet-level and wield enormous power, hoarding critical data that could be withheld from the President. This new position also contradicts a central principle of intelligence gathering–compartmentalization. This keeps people in the same agency from knowing what others are doing as a method to combat leaks and prevent moles from selling information to foreign powers.
So, just how many spy agencies do we have today (that we know about)?
1. CIA–collects and analyzes foreign intelligence, conducts covert operations at the direction of the President. Personnel figures are classified.
2. FBI–mandated to defend the US against intelligence threats (including terrorism) but also enforces criminal laws. The Director reports to the Attorney General- which is why their culture has been unsuited for intelligence missions.
3. NSA (National Security Agency)–they break codes, collect foreign sigint and imint (signals intelligence and image intelligence from satellites). Personnel is classified and the Director reports to the Department of Defense. The NSA did not admit is existence until the 1980’s.
4. DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency)–provides intelligence for war and defense and “force” policy makers in DOD. Director is currently a Navy vice-admiral overseeing 7000 personnel.
5. National Reconnaissance Office– satellite managers. Report to DOD and CIA. Personnel not public.
6. NGIA–National Geospatial Intelligence Agency–provides maps and imagery analysis to DOD. Personnel: 14,000.
7. State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research–analyzes intelligence pertinent to US diplomacy. Reports to Secretary of State. Personnel: 300.
8. Treasury Department Office of Intelligence and Analysis–analyzes data affecting fiscal policy, international economic issues and terrorist financing, now being re-organized into the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Leader and personnel not known at this date.
9. Department of Energy Office of Intelligence–provides intelligence on foreign nuclear weapons and energy issues. Personnel: 60.
10. Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence Analysis–gathers data on potential terrorist attacks. Personnel not known.
11. Air Intelligence Agency–Provides intelligence to the Air Force. Personnel: 12,000
12. Army Intelligence and Security Command–provides intelligence to the Army chief of staff for intelligence. Personnel: 3800 civilian and 28,000 active, Guard and Reserve forces.
13. Coast Guard Intelligence–provides data and intelligence in maritime regions, port security, search and rescue, counter-narcotics, alien immigration interdiction. Reports to Coast Guard Commandant. Personnel: 657.
14. Office of Naval Intelligence–analyzes naval weapons systems, provides intelligence for joint operations with Marine Corps and non-traditional maritime missions (read: espionage). Reports to Chief of Naval Operations. Personnel: 2500.
15. Marine Corps Intelligence Department–provides intelligence for war operations, especially expeditionary missions by any member of the Armed Forces; assists Navy intelligence in cryptologic operations.
Should all these agencies be organized under one department with one director, the American principle of checks and balances is violated. We will create a dangerous monopoly of information, the most potent weapon in today’s world. Fighting fanatic Muslims is not worth this unprecedented consolidation of power.
To ask about intelligence activities and the other pressing issues concerning the terrorist threat, go to www.raleighspyconference.com or call 919-733-3076 to register for the September 1-3 event at the NC Museum of History. The top experts on global terrorism are on the program: Spies Lies and Deception: From Pearl Harbor Through the Age of Terrorism. Not to be missed.
NOTES FROM LA-LA LAND
Ariel Sharon delivered a plea to French Jews to leave France immediately for fear of a new Holocaust, citing that 10 percent of the French population is now Muslim. That could be a good idea for Americans in France too.
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France is a founder of the European Union, the gravest threat to US interests in the new century. Aside from the EU’s stated goal to diminish America’s role in the world, member nations will not extradite criminals and murderers to us because we maintain the death penalty in most of our states. Known terrorists wanted by us enjoy a safe haven on the Continent.
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I’ve been fulminating for years that the premise behind the deep environmental movement stems from a lie: the belief that the US is over-populated and that farmland is disappearing resulting in an impending famine. It just ain’t so. We are under-populated and we have more food than we can possibly consume. Thus I was delighted to receive a report from Gruen Gruen and Associates, a respected real estate consulting firm: “We are in an upside-down Malthusian world, with increases in the food supply outpacing increases in population. This relationship is not likely to change in the future, as population growth is predicted to stop long before technological and capital improvements cease to increase what can be grown or raised per acre” Yet we continue to pay farmers annual direct subsides of $235 billion worldwide. US farmers are receiving $16,000 per acre in direct cash. In Europe it’s $17,000 per acre. Preserving farmland with subsidies for nostalgic and political reasons is preventing development and costing taxpayers billions
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If you have been screwed by American Express, honk your horn. This once effective and helpful travel card firm has deteriorated beyond recognition. Don’t believe their ads and for sure leave home without it. Let me know your outrageous story about AMEX.
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Will someone please follow up and find out if the road improvement money withheld from our cities by the NC Legislature last biennium to help balance the budget is being returned after this session? State workers got a raise but Raleigh is becoming impassable.
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I like the idea of adding a high-tech small conference center to the proposed plans for the new civic center in downtown Raleigh. There is a crying need for a medium-sized meeting venue, not only for visitors, but for area citizens too. Perhaps it will draw the 60% or so of Raleighites who say they have never visited downtown.