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