http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/
U.S. may move billions from satellites to human intelligence The Bush administration, seeking to implement a key lesson of the Al Qaida suicide strikes in 2001, has been examining the prospect of transferring resources from satellite to human intelligence. Police patrol on the Thames River after terrorist attacks in London. The U.S. intelligence community has been discussing a revision of its priorities that would enable billions of dollars to be transferred from satellite intelligence to cadres of intelligence agents in the Middle East. The White House has been discussing the issue with Congress and touting the idea as a lesson to be learned from 9/11. The House Intelligence Committee has proposed transferring several billions of dollars from satellite intelligence to the recruitment and formation of intelligence agents who would focus on the Mideast and South Asia. Officials said the proposal would involve recruiting agents and analysts fluent in such languages as Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and Urdu. In March 2005, a presidential commission on intelligence asserted that satellite projects constitute a huge part of the intelligence budget and leave little for other collection methods. The commission said the proportion of the intelligence budget would mark a major challenge for the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte. "Increasingly, there are air-breathing alternatives to satellite surveillance," the report said. In a report attached to the intelligence reauthorization bill, the House Intelligence Committee criticized the proposed budget for the intelligence community submitted by the Bush administration. The report said the administration request remains "weighted far too heavily toward expensive technical systems" and proposed eliminating "redundant or unjustified technical collection systems." House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican, said satellite reconnaissance programs have performed poorly for years. Hoekstra said his committee has marked an unspecified number of programs for termination. The Democratic minority on the Intelligence Committee, led by Rep. Jane Harman of California, has questioned the recommendation to transfer funding to humint. The Democrats issued a dissenting report that warned of a gap in intelligence capabilities and the damage to companies that had long contributed to the U.S. spy satellite effort. The companies include Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. "We support the efforts to confront hard choices in technical programs," the Democratic report said. "However, we think it is unwise to make sudden, drastic cuts to programs absent a more thorough technical review." -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
