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Step Five: Intelligence GatheringPosted Monday, December 7, 2009, at 10:39 AM
The United States now has 17 intelligence gathering agencies. These should immediately be combined (with the exception of the FBI, which would remain in the Department of Justice, its role limited to domestic crime). One can argue that so many snoops are operating at the expense of vital information going forward appropriatly--to say nothing of the dollar cost and the fact that if our leaders have an agenda condraticted by an intelligence report from one agency, they can simply look for another that agrees with it.
A combined intelligence agency would be expected to determine who our future enemies are and what means they have to threaten us. It would also be expected to be sure we have a secure Internet. Much about the intelligence agencies is classified but it is a certainity today that the total of the budgets for the 16 agencies exceeds $50 billion. Savings would be realized by combining them but even the present total is money well spent if the result of the work can be substantially improved--Berkley Bedell and Jim Frost. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
Berkley Bedell--Retirement from the U.S. Congress in 1987, neither dulled my interest in the well-being of the people of the United States nor my worries about our governance. I began work in 2006 on a book outlining the country's problems and offering solutions.
Jim Frost--I share Berkley's concerns and in 2007 began the job of researching, editing and assisting with writing his book.
By early 2009, after finally weathering George W. Bush and recognizing how much the past eight wasted years have set the world back, our focus changed. We had seen no meaningful progress in the efforts to stem the threat of nuclear weapons, reverse global warming, preserve natural resources, reduce military spending, fight disease and hunger, improve health care, deal with the increasing gulf between rich people and poor people, establish a workable economic system, or clean up the political process.
For us, these three things became self-evident:
First, the problems are global; the U.S. cannot by itself control or solve them.
Second, the perfect storm of worldwide catastrophe is already upon us; what must be said cannot wait.
Third, in seeking solutions, the problems must be put before as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
This blog is the result. There will be much more. We invite you to participate.
Hot topics Cronies All(1 ~ 6:51 PM, Aug 24)
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Step Six: Homeland Security
Step Five: Intelligence Gathering
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Combining all of our overseas assets would be the equivalent of putting all of our eggs in one basket. Every investment advisor encourages their clients to diversify. It is the same in the intelligence community.
We must remember that every intelligence enitity came into existance because no other oganization could perform that function or couldn't get congress to provide the funding for an existing organization to do it.
It is a lot more news worthy to create a new organization rather than task an existing organization with what could legitimately be their task. A case in point would be Homeland Security. The CIA and the FBI had the resources to perform most of the functions of Homeland Security, but they had failed to warn us about the 9/11 terror plots. So to divert public attention from the fact that these organizations failed because of inadequate funding or faulty mission statements, all functions of our Government, they create a new Organization that is going to protect us from the evil terrorists.
Congress and the Presidents have created this gordian knot, but for the most part it works. While there is room for improvement, we must work slowly. Unlike the gordian knot, if we decide to fix this by first cutting it in half, the loose ends will unravel and we may never get ahold of them ever again.