THE Bush administration said it had spent US$43.5 billion
(S$63.6 billion) on spying in fiscal 2007, as it bowed on Tuesday
to a law ordering disclosure of a figure the government has kept
secret for most of the past 60 years.
'Disclosure of the amount of the budget is a good first step toward
accountability,' said Steven Aftergood of the Federation of
American Scientists, which has campaigned for publication of the
annual intelligence budget.
The figure, which is roughly equal to the entire economy of Croatia
or Qatar, dwarfs the estimated intelligence budgets of any other
country including the closest US ally, Britain, which spends about
10 per cent of the amount, he said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence published the
figure for overall US intelligence spending in fiscal 2007, which
ended last month.
Congress mandated the disclosure in a law passed in August to
implement recommendations of a commission that investigated the
Sept 11, 2001 attacks.
The intelligence office said it would keep secret other details
about the budget. Intelligence agencies had long resisted
disclosing their budgets on the grounds that enemies could learn
from the information.
The US$43.5 billion is about what outside experts had expected, Mr
Aftergood said, and is about 50 per cent more than the government
is believed to have spent in 2001.
'That's a large increase in spending that is difficult to spend
wisely,' Mr Aftergood said. He said the figure does not include an
estimated US$10 billion or more in military intelligence
spending.
The CIA, which previously oversaw all US intelligence gathering,
released a budget total of US$26.6 billion in 1997, including for
military intelligence, in response to a suit by the federation.
Including the CIA there 16 US agencies that are considered to be
involved in intelligence gathering, such as the National Security
Agency.
In 1998 the CIA also released its budget but the agency fought
against disclosing its 1999 budget and won. Subsequent efforts to
force a budget disclosure also failed.
The budget disclosure will help put intelligence spending in
perspective, and inform public and congressional debate, Mr
Aftergood said. The figure is about 1.6 per cent of the total US
budget for 2007 and equal to roughly 10 per cent of the regular
military budget before extra war spending is counted.
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democrat John
Rockefeller of West Virginia, said in a statement, 'The American
people have a right to know what their government's priorities are
and whether we're spending too much or too little on intelligence
matters.' The disclosure law requires release of the 2008 spending
figure, but after that the US president can waive the requirement
for a valid national security reason, Mr Aftergood said. --
REUTERS
Can the US spy in Singapore please stand up.
