It would be interesting to know what that $80 billon really buys? It is unfortunate that there is not some method to discover the ‘real return on capital’ of that whole ecclesiastical and almost mystical apparatus that is much like a ‘Temple of Intelligence’.

Rather than just sounding like a politician who wants to cut "Fraud, Waste, and Abuse" to save money, what would you cut? Fewer UAVs in the BCTs? Cut some CIA analysts? Oh, and much like trying to cut JFCOM out, good luck convincing any members of congress to make those cuts if those jobs or production of intel assets is done in their district.

The first thing I would is "sunset" all programs, activities, and agencies, along the lines once suggested by William O. Douglas--that is, every 5 years, they either get re-authorized by Congress, or the agencies themselves go out of business.

Second is limit consulting payments to a percentage of total budget.

Third is probably get rid of a lot of analysis that is inferior to open source stuff.

That's a start.

Best,
Tom

U.S. military intelligence spending and overall military is bloated, wasteful, uses resources needed for nation building at home, and needs to be vastly reduced.

Conservatives and those on the right (Glenn Beck, DeMint) decry socialism but those on the right are the biggest cheerleaders for our military/corporate socialism which has become a vast jobs program in congressional districts. Socialism can be a positive force but instead of serving corporate military contractors socialism should serve average Americans, alleviate poverty, and education.

Does the National Endowment for Democracy fall under the intelligence budget?

and if not why not?

The problem with intelligence spending is that it is mostly a pre-emptive activity. It is very hard to measure the return on investment on prevention initiatives, but studies in the medical field insist on their importance. I think any cut in this field should be done with care. Trusting this on politicians planning only over a four years span seems risky to me.

This being my 2 cents. I do think 80 billions is rather steep, but I do not want to be the one who decide where to cut, and who accidentally ends up costing lives at home or abroad.

As a fairly junior FSO, I occasionally took a more senior officer's classified messages and sent them out, with wording slightly altered, as unclassified messages, often citing the newspapers where he got the original information. When he challenged me on this I asked what part of my message should have been classified. He then stormed out of the room. I quit this when the ambassador asked me to, saying that the practice was getting the other officer very upset.
Over my career I saw a lot of this type of "reporting", and realized that there was far too much classification going on, and that open source material was often far better and far more usable.

The U.S. Constitution specifically requires an accounting of public funds, so a law requiring disclosure is not required. We just must insist that withholding the truth is treasonous. Congress does little because most have been blackmailed to shut up.

Second, most CIA funding is grabbed from the Pentagon. Recall the ongoing "problem" of the Pentagon unable to account for billions of dollars each year, and Congress never investigates. There around thousands of CIA agents wearing American military uniforms (Gates was one of them for a while). One of their roles is to help pay for CIA activities by stealing stuff by declaring it surplus so the CIA can use it.

Of course the other role is spying on the US. military, just like the KGB. So be careful what you say to your fellow officers, lest it get reported to Langley. This is how the CIA gets much of its intel to impress the President. They intercept it from U.S. military channels and flash it to Gates before it arrives in the Pentagon.

All this dosh on the table and we are still concerned about what men in beards in the desert might be doing next? They are operational idiots. An underwear bomb? Terrorists kill how many Northern Americans and Europeans every year? How many Americans die in routine road accidents? How much cash do we fund for road safety vs. CT issues?

Curious question, how much money did Penkovsky get paid a month. Cheap at the price and he was a true Russian Patriot to boot

Best all,
AJ.

It is disgusting how much we spend on defense and how little we spend on other very important parts of th budget, such as education. Deciding where to cut the defense spending is not a task I would enjoy undertaking. As we are involved in two wars, trying to hold onto our hegemony status, competing with China on every level, it is hard to tell where we are able to cut. Should we eliminate certain parts (maybe ending a war?) or reduce parts or all aspects of the defense budget? How would any politician get elected if he ran on a platform including this? It translates into reducing funding for the troops. Getting elected just wouldn't happen.

The law of diminishing returns.... but how may are tripping over each other secretly spying and programming of all kinds in our own country under the wildcard of terrorism??? They could be doing anythign to anyone for any reason in any way and as Bill Schieffel saying there are technologies going on in Iraq that you couldn't imagine but i can imagien whatever it is he can't talk about could also be used here. and misused even...could happen