U.S. intelligence agencies ‘wasted' billions: Senator faults mismanagement
By Shaun Waterman The Washington Times
8:07 p.m., Tuesday, October 12, 2010
U.S. intelligence agencies have wasted many billions of dollars by mismanaging secret, high-technology programs, the deputy chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence says.
“The American public would be outraged if they knew,” Sen. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican, told The Washington Times. “Billions and billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted.”
Mr. Bond said he was unable to provide details or exact figures because the programs are classified. “I wish I could, but I can't,” he said, adding that “many billions of dollars” were wasted on “just one program” that had been canceled recently.
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Phi Beta Iota: It is actually tens of billions. If you take General Tony Zinni's estimate that secret intelligence provided him with, “at best” 4% of what he needed as commanding general of the US Central Command (USCENTCOM), then engaged in two wars and several “expeditions,” and you take $75 billion a year as the now public amount, what you end up with is a range: $72 billion wasted at the high end, or our personal estimate, $66 billion wasted at the low end. This is reprehensible. It is also misleading to suggest that the new reviews of over-spending on new initiatives will cut waste. The waste is in the “base” and it is the base that needs to be churned by cutting 20% a year for each of five years running (yes, that does add up to 100%). For a still valid detailed review that had inputs from the top two guys for national security and C4I at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the time, see 2000 ON INTELLIGENCE: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World.
