The Growing Trend of Privatized Intelligence

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May 8, 2006

The Washington Post: "Lawmakers Want More Data on Contracting Out Intelligence."  It's about time:

Congress is taking its first steps to oversee the Defense Department's rapidly growing activities in the foreign and domestic intelligence fields, focusing also on the growing practice of contracting out intelligence analysis to former military personnel.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in its version of the fiscal 2007 intelligence authorization bill [ed. note: POGO commented on this bill; see here], has called for enhanced reporting requirements on the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the Pentagon's newest and fastest-growing intelligence agency. ...

Last year, contractors were "a significant majority" of analysts working at the new National Counterterroism Center (NCTC), which has primary responsibility for providing the White House and others with analysis based on foreign and domestic information, Gannon said. The proportion is even greater at CIFA, the Pentagon's new agency coordinating "force protection" at Defense Department facilities. CIFA officials have told The Washington Post that 70 percent of their workers are contractors.

As Laura Rozen points out, the MZM-Wade-Wilkes-Cunningham-et al fiasco is a microcosm of the trend of increasing privatization in the intelligence community and of the government in general.

Authors: Nick Schwellenbach

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