[Intelforum] Secrecy News -- 11/17/05 (IF)

[Aftergood, Steven]

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 107
November 17, 2005


**	"LEAKED" INTELLIGENCE BUDGET FIGURE MAY BE WRONG
**	AIR INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 2004 BUDGET DISCLOSED
**	SECRET SESSIONS OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE (CRS)
**	US MILITARY OVERSEAS BASING (CRS)


"LEAKED" INTELLIGENCE BUDGET FIGURE MAY BE WRONG

The public disclosure of the total intelligence budget figure
by Deputy Director of National Intelligence Mary Margaret
Graham at a conference two weeks ago produced outrage from
some legislators who favor budget secrecy and triggered an
official inquiry by the Office of the DNI.

But the squabble over the disclosure is doubly odd since the
reported $44 billion intelligence spending figure, which would
be harmless if accurate, may be incorrect.

"You can read these numbers a lot of different ways," one
intelligence official told United Press International.  "But I
cannot put together any set of budgets in any configuration
that comes to that ($44 billion) number."

See "Leak Probe on Intelligence Budget Slip" by Shaun Waterman,
UPI, November 14:

  http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20051108-070926-9450r

It is possible that the actual source of Deputy Director
Graham's "disclosure" was a recent Washington Post story.

The 2006 intelligence authorization act "carries about $44
billion for the 15 [intelligence] agencies and Office of the
Director of National Intelligence," wrote Walter Pincus in
"GOP Senators Look to Shift Spy Management From CIA,"
Washington Post, October 1, 2005.

The Post figure refers to the 2006 intelligence budget
authorization, not the amount of money actually appropriated,
which is likely to be different.


AIR INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 2004 BUDGET DISCLOSED

Aside from formal secrecy, some intelligence agency budgets are
shielded from prying eyes by baroque bookkeeping practices
that nearly defy comprehension.

For example, the budget of the US Air Force Air Intelligence
Agency was nearly $1.3 billion in 2004, according to a newly
disclosed Air Force briefing.

But this total budget figure melded funding streams from
multiple external sources, the briefing explained.

"Two-thirds of our funding comes from non-Air Force
congressional appropriations," including three National
Foreign Intelligence Programs: the Consolidated Cryptologic
Program (NSA), the General Defense Intelligence Program (DIA),
and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (now NGA).

A copy of the unclassified briefing was provided to Secrecy
News by William M. Arkin, who writes the Early Warning blog
for the Washington Post (blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning).

See "AIA Mission Briefing," Air Intelligence Agency, February
2004 (PowerPoint file):

     http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/usaf/aia2004.ppt


SECRET SESSIONS OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE (CRS)

The Congressional Research Service has updated its accounts of
secret sessions of Congress to reflect the secret session of
the Senate on November 1 that addressed pre-war intelligence on
Iraq.

See "Secret Sessions of Congress: A Brief Historical Overview,"
updated November 3, 2005:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RS20145.pdf

And "Secret Sessions of the House and Senate," updated November
3, 2005:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/98-718.pdf


US MILITARY OVERSEAS BASING (CRS)

Another new Congressional Research Service report considers
plans for relocating U.S. military bases abroad, and political
developments that might affect those plans.

"Host nations such as South Korea have begun to voice limits on
the use of forces based in their country.  Uzbekistan, one of
the test cases for the new strategy, recently evicted U.S.
forces from the base in that Central Asian nation.  Some
analysts argue this eviction was prompted from Russia and
China, who have begun to express concern with U.S. expansion of
influence in the region."

See "U.S. Military Overseas Basing: New Developments and
Oversight Issues for Congress," October 31, 2005:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33148.pdf



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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web:    www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email:  saftergood at fas.org
voice:  (202) 454-4691