PROPOSED PLAN WOULD REVEAL U.S. SPY AGENCY BUDGET

Posted April 23 april, 1996
Source: Reuter
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.

Back to news menu

News
All rights reserved to WUFOC and NÄRKONTAKT. If you reprint or quote any part of the content, you must give credit to: WUFOC, the free UFO-alternative on the Internet, http://www.tripnet.se/home/west/ufocentr.htm