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Newer News: November 2008

October 2008 Intelligence News

• Change Expands Eligibility for Intelligence Hires by Walter Pincus, Washington Post, October 29. "Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has taken steps to make it easier for U.S. intelligence agencies to recruit first-generation Americans with foreign relatives."
• U.S. says 2008 intelligence budget was $47.5 billion by Jim Wolf, Reuters, October 28. "The U.S. intelligence budget rose more than 9 percent in fiscal 2008 to total $47.5 billion from $43.5 billion the year before, the director of national intelligence said on Tuesday."
• Intel agencies spent $47.5 billion by Pamela Hess, Associated Press, October 28. "U.S. spy agencies spent $47.5 billion in fiscal year 2008, $4 billion more than in the previous budget year, according to National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell."
• DNI Releases Budget Figure for 2008 National Intelligence Program, ODNI news release, October 28. "The aggregate amount appropriated to the NIP for fiscal year 2008 was $47.5 Billion."
• Spy Fears: Twitter Terrorists, Cell Phone Jihadists by Noah Shachtman, Danger Room, October 24. "Could Twitter become terrorists' newest killer app? A draft Army intelligence report, making its way through spy circles, thinks the miniature messaging software could be used as an effective tool for coordinating militant attacks."
• GeoEye's New Satellite Offers Unprecedentedly Sharp Images by William Matthews, Defense News, October 20. "The sharpest commercial imaging satellite ever launched is now orbiting the Earth, sweeping over the North Pole and under the South Pole every 98 minutes, collecting high-resolution images of the scene below."
• U.S. intel likes Israeli media, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 6. "U.S. intelligence agencies published a favorable, extensive review of the Israeli media. The CIA, which supervises the Open Source Center, has not authorized the release of the report. Secrecy News, a publication of the Federation of American Scientists, obtained it and published it Monday."
• New Policy Makes Information Sharing a Factor in Employees' Performance Reviews, ODNI news release, October 6. "A new federal policy aims to increase the sharing of terrorism-related information among certain federal employees by making such exchanges a factor in annual performance appraisals."
• Joint Statement of Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller on the Issuance of the Attorney General Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations, news release, October 3.
• Fact Sheet: Attorney General Consolidated Guidelines for FBI Domestic Operations, news release, October 3. "The consolidated guidelines provide uniform standards, to the extent possible, for all FBI domestic investigative activities and intelligence gathering activities. They are designed to provide a single, consistent structure that applies regardless of whether the FBI is seeking information concerning federal crimes, threats to national security, foreign intelligence matters or some combination of these. Previously, different sets of guidelines applied in different investigative areas despite their often overlapping purposes and prescribed different standards and procedures for essentially similar activities."
• ODNI: Trade-off information security for good intel by Bob Brewin, Government Executive, October 1. "The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a directive on Tuesday that recommends managers of information technology systems accept a lower level of security if it provides the United States with better intelligence."