FAS | Intelligence | News | 2004 ||||

September 2004 Intelligence News

• Intelligence Failure, Washington Post (editorial), September 30. "THE SEPT. 11 commission recently recommended that the amount of money this country spends on intelligence no longer be kept secret."
• Democratic Republic of the Congo Ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, news release, September 29. "This latest ratification also brings the total of ratifications in the Africa geographical region to 25, and the overall total of ratifications worldwide to 118."
• White House Statement of Administration Policy on the National Intelligence Reform Act, September 28. "The legislation should not compel disclosure, including to the Nation's enemies in war, of the amounts requested by the President, and provided by the Congress, for the conduct of the Nation's intelligence activities."
• Senate Debate on the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, on the Senate floor, September 27.
• Spy imagery agency takes new role inside United States after Sept. 11 by Katherine Pfleger Shrader, Associated Press, September 26. "In the name of homeland security, America's spy imagery agency is keeping a close eye, close to home. It's watching America."
• House Intelligence Reform Bill: "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act" (H.R. 10), introduced September 24 (335 pages, 1 MB PDF file).
• Senate Intelligence Reform Bill: "National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004" (S. 2845), introduced by Sens. Collins, Lieberman, September 23.
• Tunisia Ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, news release, September 24. "Tunisia has deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the United Nations Secretary-General on 23 September 2004, bringing the total number of Treaty ratifications to 117."
• Liechtenstein Ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, news release, September 22. "Liechtenstein has deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the United Nations Secretary-General on 21 September 2004, bringing the total number of Treaty ratifications to 116."
• CIA refuses to release historical budget data by Chris Strohm, Government Executive Daily Briefing, September 17. "The acting director of Central Intelligence told a federal court this week that he will not release historical budget information for the intelligence community and, in some cases, does not have past budget data for individual agencies."
• Draft White House Legislation on Intelligence Reform, September 16. This Act may be cited as the "National Security and Intelligence Act of 2004".
• DCI Nominee Porter Goss Opposes Intelligence Budget Disclosure, excerpt from his confirmation hearing, September 14. "My preference is no, sir, for a very simple reason."
• C.I.A. Nominee Said to Champion Budgets Over Watchdog Role by Douglas Jehl, New York Times, September 13. "As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Porter J. Goss, Republican of Florida, watched over American intelligence agencies through all seven years that George J. Tenet was running them. But even in those turbulent times, Mr. Goss cast himself more as a rebuilder than as a watchdog."
• Acting DCI McLaughlin Conditionally Endorses Intelligence Budget Disclosure, at a hearing of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, September 8. "I don't think that declassifying the top line would be a major security threat."
• White House Fact Sheet: Leading the Way on Reforming and Strengthening Our Intelligence Services, September 8. "The President intends to give the NID full budget authority over the National Foreign Intelligence Program appropriation and the management tools necessary to successfully oversee the Intelligence Community, including ensuring the full integration of foreign and domestic intelligence."
• 9/11 Commission, SSCI Remarks on Intelligence Budget Disclosure, Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, September 7. "The American public would be shocked if they knew the misallocation of resources between HUMINT and other aspects of our intelligence budget. They need to know that. How can you carry on a debate on the floor of the Senate without talking about those kind of gross numbers?"
• Senators Introduce Measure to Implement 9/11 Commission Recommendations, news release, September 7.
• 9/11 Commission Report Implementation Act, summary of S. 2774, introduced September 7.
• Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) Call for 2005 Challenge Workshop Proposals, August 31. "ARDA is an intelligence community organization whose mission is to sponsor high-risk, high-payoff research designed to leverage leading edge technology to solve some of the most critical problems facing the Intelligence Community (IC)."