{"id":64085,"date":"2013-08-29T21:50:04","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T20:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/snowden-reveals-us-intelligences-black-budget-52-6-billion-on-secret-programs\/64085\/"},"modified":"2013-08-29T21:50:04","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T20:50:04","slug":"snowden-reveals-us-intelligences-black-budget-52-6-billion-on-secret-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/snowden-reveals-us-intelligences-black-budget-52-6-billion-on-secret-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowden reveals US intelligence\u2019s black budget: $52.6 billion on secret programs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Published time: August 29, 2013 20:41 <\/span>
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The headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (AFP Photo \/ Brendan Smialowski)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has leaked a new top-secret document that for the first time ever publically discloses how the United States spends tens of billions of dollars annually on clandestine spy programs.<\/p>\n

\n The Washington Post revealed the so-called \u201cblack budget\u201d on
\n Thursday and reports that $52.6 billion was set aside for
\n operations in fiscal year 2013.\n<\/p>\n

\n Among the biggest priorities for the intelligence community, the
\n Post reported, are \u201coffensive cyber operations<\/i>\u201d and
\n research devoted to decoding encrypted communications.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Post\u2019s Barton Gellman, Greg Miller and Julie Tate wrote
\n Thursday that Mr. Snowden, the 30-year-old former Booz Allen
\n Hamilton staffer who started leaking classified national security
\n documents earlier this year, provided the paper with the
\n never-before published summary of this year\u2019s budget.\n<\/p>\n

\n But although the Post reported that the document is 178 pages in
\n length, they have at the same time elected to only make available
\n one-tenth of the content, citing \u201cconcerns about the risk to
\n intelligence sources and methods<\/i>\u201d brought up by US officials
\n who were notified ahead of publication.\n<\/p>\n

\nFY 2013 Congressional Budget
\n Justification, provided by Washington Post
\n
<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cSensitive details are so pervasive in the documents that the
\n Post is publishing only summary tables and charts online<\/i>,\u201d
\n the paper wrote in the article that accompanies the 17-page
\n selection. The document is labeled \u201ctop secret<\/i>\u201d and warns
\n that it is only to be accessed by US citizens with the proper
\n security clearance.\n<\/p>\n

\n Shrouded in secrecy, the amount that Uncle Sam sets aside for
\n sensitive operations each year is not allowed to be published for
\n eyes outside of the intelligence community and only for a portion
\n of those briefed on its operations. The latest Snowden leak
\n reveals that at $52.6 billion, the government is actually handing
\n out 2.3 percent fewer than it did in fiscal year 2012 and,
\n additionally, sequestration has caused the agencies to shed 1,241
\n positions, or around one percent of its workforce. Despite these
\n setbacks, though, the budget, described by the Post as \u201ca
\n bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been
\n subject to public scrutiny<\/i>,\u201d includes billions of dollars
\n towards operations that may not be funded if debated in the
\n press.\n<\/p>\n

\n In comparison, the Department of Homeland Security was allocated
\n $55.4 billion in FY2013. The black budget comes in at a figure
\n larger than the sums received by the Department of the Interior,
\n the Department of Commerce and NASA this year combined.\n<\/p>\n

\n Yet despite the hefty cost of operating the secret operations
\n amid sequestration, excerpts from the summary leaked by Snowden
\n show that the US still has significant setbacks keeping it from
\n achieving its intelligence goals.\n<\/p>\n

\n For one, the disclosure in and of itself demonstrates the
\n intelligence community\u2019s inability to prevent sensitive
\n information from being leaked.\n<\/p>\n

\n In FY2013, the budget summary says the government invested in
\n ramping-up its counterintelligence operations at a time when
\n budget cuts led to reductions in the community\u2019s workforce,
\n operations, long-term investments, infrastructure and information
\n technology sectors.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cTo further safeguard our classified networks, we continue to
\n strengthen insider threat detection capabilities across the
\n community<\/i>,\u201d the document reads.\n<\/p>\n

\n As the Post reported, however, the implementation of any insider
\n threat program came too late to catch Snowden, who began mining
\n for documents while employed as a contractor for Dell Inc in May
\n 2012. Snowden began work at Dell in 2009 and it is not
\n immediately clear what security clearance he had before or during
\n the time he started scouring networks for documents, but the Post
\n article claims \u201ca major counterintelligence initiative<\/i>\u201d
\n budgeted for FY2012 saw its own resources slashed after an
\n \u201call-hands, emergency response<\/i>\u201d was ordered to deal with
\n the disclosures then being published by the anti-secrecy group
\n WikiLeaks.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Post cites an excerpt from this year\u2019s budget where it\u2019s
\n noted that programs are being implemented to \u201cmitigate insider
\n threats by trusted insiders who seek to exploit their authorized
\n access to sensitive information to harm US interests<\/i>.\u201d
\n Although Snowden\u2019s disclosures \u2013 including this one \u2013 demonstrate
\n that the $3.64 billion set aside to \u201cintegrate
\n counterintelligence\u201d in FY2013 could have likely benefited the
\n intelligence community had it come sooner.\n<\/p>\n

\n According to one graph included in the document, roughly 39
\n percent of this year\u2019s black budget was set aside for providing
\n strategic intelligence and warning, with around one-third going
\n towards combating violent extremism. Counter weapons
\n proliferation received 13 percent of total funding, and enhancing
\n cybersecurity and integrating counterintelligence were allotted 8
\n and 7 percent, respectively.\n<\/p>\n

\n More broadly speaking, Central Intelligence Agency programs were
\n awarded 28 percent of the total $52.6 billion \u2013 or around $14.7
\n billion, with the Consolidated Cryptologic Program receiving the
\n second most funding with roughly $11 billion. The Post reports
\n that that program includes the National Security Agency on the
\n division of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines that involves
\n conducting surveillance and breaking and decrypting codes.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are bolstering our support for clandestine SIGINT [signals
\n intelligence] capabilities to collect against high priority
\n targets, including foreign leadership targets<\/i>,\u201d DNI Clapper
\n says in the summary. \u201cAlso, we are investing in groundbreaking
\n cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and
\n exploit Internet traffic.\u201d<\/i>\n<\/p>\n

\n Approached by the Post for comment before Thursday\u2019s publication,
\n Clapper said, \u201cThe United States has made a considerable
\n investment in the Intelligence Community since the terror attacks
\n of 9\/11, a time which includes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the
\n Arab Spring, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
\n technology, and asymmetric threats in such areas as
\n cyber-warfare<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur budgets are classified as they could provide insight for
\n foreign intelligence services to discern our top national
\n priorities, capabilities and sources and methods that allow us to
\n obtain information to counter threats<\/i>,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n

\n Through previous disclosures attributed to Snowden, though, the
\n American public has learned that the NSA programs launched to
\n collect foreign intelligence has allowed the federal government
\n to sweep up personal and private information pertaining to
\n Americans who are guaranteed constitution protection from such
\n surveillance.\n<\/p>\n

\n At the same time, the targeting of foreign persons of interest
\n has apparently suffered significant losses as of late with
\n regards to the intelligence community\u2019s aspirations. The document
\n claims that counterintelligence initiatives are being ramped up
\n against \u201ckey targets<\/i>\u201d including China, Russia, Iran,
\n Israel, Pakistan and Cuba, but the Post reported that five
\n \u201ccritical<\/i>\u201d gaps currently exist keeping the US from
\n collecting as much as it would like on North Korea.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAnalysts know virtually nothing about the intentions of North
\n Korean leader Kim Jong Un<\/i>,\u201d the Post reported, adding that
\n those critical gaps have given America the inability to properly
\n assess the nuclear and missile programs masterminded from
\n Pyongyang.\n<\/p>\n

\n Elsewhere, though, the reporters say that other parts of the
\n budget suggest North Korea is anything but an active target.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cA section on North Korea indicates that the United States has
\n all but surrounded the nuclear-armed country with surveillance
\n platforms<\/i>,\u201d the paper reported. \u201cThere are distant ground
\n sensors to monitor seismic activity and scan the country for
\n signs that might point to construction of new nuclear sites. US
\n agencies seek to capture photos, air samples and infrared imagery
\n \u2018around the clock<\/i>.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n And for those nations of upmost interest, the intelligence
\n community is investing heavily on \u201coffensive cyber
\n operations<\/i>\u201d launched by the CIA and NSA to hack foreign
\n competitors, steal data and sabotage servers. The Post neglected
\n to publish any excerpts from the summary detailing to what degree
\n the intelligence community has been engaging in these strategic
\n hacks, saying only that recently launched efforts are more
\n \u201caggressive<\/i>\u201d than before. As RT has reported extensively
\n in the past, the US government has been accused of being the
\n biggest hackers<\/a> on the planet at a time when,
\n domestically, so-called cybercriminals are prosecuted at an
\n alarming rate for comparably less harsh crimes.\n<\/p>\n

\n Last week, RT reported that hacker and political activist Jeremy
\n Hammond of Chicago, Illinois will soon be sentenced for his
\n admitted role in aiding with malicious campaigns targeting the
\n California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, computer
\n servers used by various New York State police chiefs and a
\n company that provides munitions used to gas protesters in Egypt,
\n among others. According to a letter<\/a> written by Hammond from a New York City jail
\n cell, the US government used a confidential informant within the
\n hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSec \u201cto facilitate the
\n hacking of targets of the government\u2019s choosing \u2014 including
\n numerous websites belonging to foreign governments<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhy was the United States using us to infiltrate the private
\n networks of foreign governments? What are they doing with the
\n information we stole? And will anyone in our government ever be
\n held accountable for these crimes<\/i>?\u201d Hammond asked.\n<\/p>\n

Republished from: RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published time: August 29, 2013 20:41 The headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (AFP Photo \/ Brendan Smialowski) Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has leaked a new top-secret document that for the first time ever publically discloses how the United States spends tens of billions of dollars annually on clandestine spy programs. The Washington Post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-64085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}