SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2004, Issue No. 23
February 25, 2004

PENTAGON PUBLISHES INTELLIGENCE BUDGET DATA

In an implicit repudiation of the Director of Central Intelligence's budget secrecy policies, the Pentagon has published proposed 2005 spending figures for classified intelligence research and development programs and for procurement of classified equipment by defense intelligence agencies.

According to the DCI, public disclosure of a single aggregate figure for all intelligence-related spending would damage national security and compromise intelligence sources and methods. (And even fifty year old budget data remain classified at CIA.)

But although DCI Tenet swore under penalty of perjury that such secrecy was necessary, his views on the subject do not command respect, not even at the Pentagon, which has included more detailed and current intelligence spending figures in its latest budget request.

Thus, the Pentagon is asking for close to $4.1 billion in intelligence research and development funds and $544 million in procurement funds in FY 2005 "for classified equipment procured by the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and the Counterintelligence Field Activity." The figures represent a slight decrease from the current year.

The figures themselves are fairly opaque and do not begin to reveal the substance of the programs they fund. Which is why there are no grounds for classifying them, let alone a much broader aggregation of all intelligence spending government-wide.

The intelligence budget data sheets were published on the DoD Comptroller web site, and were reported on February 26 by John Liang in InsideDefense.com. They are excerpted here:

DDI MISCIK ON THE STATE OF ANALYSIS AT CIA

CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence (DDI) Jami A. Miscik presented her view of the "state of analysis" at CIA in a February 11 speech that was alternately defensive and self-critical.

"First and foremost, you need to know our integrity has held firm," she declared. "Our integrity goes hand-in-hand with our analytic objectivity."

But she admitted analytical failures, such as the continued reliance on an intelligence source that had been tagged as a fabricator, while noting that CIA had discovered and acknowledged the lapse at its own initiative.

Ms. Miscik expressed uncertainty about the proper format for the President's Daily Brief and the relationship between the National Intelligence Council and the Directorate of Intelligence.

She also observed that analysts in CIA's Directorate of Intelligence are "younger, more junior and more inexperienced than ever before."

And she announced "a new requirement for a one-day Tradecraft Refresher Course that will be mandatory for all analysts and managers.... This is that serious."

The text of the "DDI's State of Analysis Speech" was obtained by Secrecy News and is now available here (11 pages, 2 MB PDF file):

BILL HARLOW, ZEN MASTER

We have much to learn from Bill Harlow, the Director of the CIA Office of Public Affairs which reliably rebuffs our requests for information.

When Secrecy News initially called CIA Public Affairs to request a copy of DDI Miscik's speech above, we were told that Mr. Harlow was "exercising his discretion not to give it to you"-- even though it had been previously provided to the Washington Post and the New York Times. (SN, 02/23/04).

At first glance, this response appeared to be the petty act of a minor bureaucrat bent on stifling criticism of his troubled agency.

But beneath the small-minded facade, Mr. Harlow was propounding a deeper lesson.

Go out and cultivate your own sources, Bill was saying. Don't become dependent on our "Office of Public Affairs." When authorized channels are blocked, seek out the unauthorized channels. Be creative. Get what you need by your own devices.

And so we did.

IAEA REPORT ON IRAN

New evidence of previously undisclosed research in Iran on enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear materials was described in a February 24 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A copy of the IAEA report, marked "restricted distribution" and "for official use only" perhaps in order to ensure a wide readership, is posted here:

IS THE RECIPE FOR RICIN ON THE INTERNET?

The widely reported assertion that one can find the "recipe" for manufacturing the toxin ricin on the internet is investigated and debunked by analyst (and chemist) George Smith in National Security Notes, a new publication of GlobalSecurity.org. See:

OTHER NEWS AND RESOURCES

Democratic members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security presented their critique of homeland security policy in a new report presented on the first anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security. See "America at Risk: Closing the Security Gap" here:

In 1968, the U.S. military planned to attack the Soviet anti-ballistic missile system (ABM) with more than 100 nuclear weapons, according to an article in the March/April issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. See "The Protection Paradox" by Hans M. Kristensen, Matthew G. McKinzie and Robert S. Norris:

Selected documents on U.S. military space policy, including descriptions of new intercontinental ballistic missile concepts, are provided by the Western States Legal Foundation here:

A Freedom of Information Act officer at FBI Headquarters was sentenced to a year in prison yesterday because she unlawfully accessed the FBI's Automated Case Support (ACS) computer system. See this Justice Department news release:

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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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