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U.S. Espionage and Intelligence is Now Being Outsourced to Private Contractors.

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U.S. espionage and intelligence involves gathering information that is considered to be confidential and sensitive to the American government.

For the most part espionage operations are covert and one government intelligence agency may not know what the other is doing.

Throughout American history, intelligence and espionage operations have been taken place, such as during the Cold War when the United States exchanged intelligence information with its allies.

Intelligence and spying have played a big part in American politics particularly in the years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

The U.S. espionage and intelligence budget has always been kept confidential and never broken down for Americans to know how and where the money is being spent.

However last year, in 2008, the intelligence budget was finally revealed due to a recent law requiring disclosure of this information.

The budget total in 2008 was $47.5 billion, an increase from $43.5 billion in 2007.

There are several different intelligence community members, each with a different role to play in the government and national security.

Some of these agencies include the Defense Intelligence Agency, Army Military Intelligence, and the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence.

The Central Intelligence Agency is an independent government agency that plays one of the largest roles in United States intelligence.

Gathering intelligence is a vital part of government operations, at least according to the American government and certainly confirmed by the large budget given to these intelligence agencies.

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Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was organized in 1947 when President Truman signed the National Security Act.

Along with the CIA, the Security Act also opened up a new position titled the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).

The Director of Central Intelligence not only acts as the chief of U.S. espionage and intelligence, he also acts as the main advisor to the President for any matters relating to national security.

In 2004, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act amended the National Security Act for the implicit reason of creating the position of Director of National Intelligence.

The Director of National Intelligence took over some of the duties of the DCI along with becoming the Director of the CIA.

The role of the CIA is to gather intelligence using CIA agents or other means.

Once intelligence has been gathered, the CIA evaluates what this information means to the national security of the United States and directs the information to the appropriate government agency.

As political changes take place in America, the roles of the CIA adapt to fit the needs of the government with the main goal being U.S. espionage and intelligence gathering.

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Outsourcing Intelligence

The American government is outsourcing many of its intelligence operations to private corporations.

The problem with this is that these private corporations aren’t accountable to the American government or the American public the way government intelligence agencies are.

Outsourcing to private companies has become one of the fastest growing industries in this country.

This means that private contractors are being given access to confidential and sensitive information that in the past has been kept very secret by the government.

Many intelligence experts feel that outsourcing U.S. espionage and intelligence will lead to critical issues that so far have been overlooked.

Another concern of outsourcing intelligence operations is the high cost of hiring private companies.

The estimate in 2005 was $42 billion dollars spent on outsourced intelligence operations.

Many intelligence experts believe the increase in outsourcing intelligence dollars is due to the failures of the Bush administration to end the war on terror in the time frame first promised to America.

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Contractors Taking Over Sensitive Government Jobs

What does this mean to national security if private contractors are taking over many sensitive jobs previously performed by government officials?

For instance, private companies are now analyzing a lot of the intelligence that is collected from satellites.

And the results of their analyses, results that are highly sensitive, are then given to high ranking government officials.

Private contractors are also supplying and maintaining multiple software programs that deal with data that is at the core of this country’s National Security.

As outsourcing spreads from one end of the U.S. espionage and intelligence spectrum to the other a lot of confidential government information is at risk.

It’s interesting that a government that is so determined to set up domestic video surveillance to watch its citizens seems to have no problem outsourcing highly sensitive intelligence operations to private companies.

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