PROPOSED PLAN WOULD REVEAL U.S. SPY AGENCY BUDGET

Internet UFO Group Media Archive

From:AOLNewsProfiles@aol.net
Title:PROPOSED PLAN WOULD REVEAL U.S. SPY AGENCY BUDGET
Source:Reuter
Date:April 23, 1996


By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The U.S. intelligence community and

its traditionally secret budget appropriation would be more open

to public scrutiny under reforms unveiled Tuesday at the White

House.

Seeking to lay to rest scandals that have raised criticism

of U.S. intelligence agencies, the Clinton administration

authorized Congress to make public the total appropriation for

intelligence, when that figure is available.

Such a figure has never before been released, though news

reports have put the total at about $28 billion in recent year.

The release of this budget figure is ``consistent with the

administration's emphasis on openness while maintaining absolute

integrity of sources and methods ... in the intelligence

community,'' said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of

anonymity.

The White House plan also calls for the formation of a

National Imagery and Mapping Agency that would consolidate the

function of five or six current agencies that process and

distribute satellite intelligence. The National Reconnaissance

Office, which builds and launches satellites, would remain

separate.

Both the House and Senate have offered their own plans to

reform U.S. intelligence, and the White House plan took up many

of their proposals. However, it rejected a suggestion that

intelligence staff be cut by 10 percent.

The White House plan called for three new high-level panels,

one on foreign intelligence, a second on global crime and a

third for ``intelligence consumers'' -- government agencies to

whom intelligence should be tailored.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency would get

two more deputy directors, bringing the total to three.

The CIA director would also have a say in the appointment of

high-level officials at other U.S. intelligence agencies, such

as the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence

Agency, a move likely to raise protests.

CIA director John Deutch told reporters these reforms were

aimed at strengthening U.S. intelligence and making it more

efficient. He also said that much of the criticism leveled at

the spy agencies has been laid to rest.

``We've ... acknowledged some of the problems the

(intelligence) community has faced ... these issues have been

dealt with forthrightly,'' Deutch said.

He listed such problems as the scandal of Soviet mole

Aldrich Ames, criticism of the CIA's conduct in Guatemala in the

early 1990s and what he called ``poor tradecraft'' in France,

where CIA operatives tried to recruit key Cabinet aides in the

French government.