Washington Post and the Intelligence community??

I had a couple of gut level reactions to this story, in no particular order:

-It's amazing how every segment of government is inherently programmed to just keep growing. Each budget cycle is like a competition to get your funding for these groups. The fact that so many sprang up right after 9/11 (When they were needed) and were allowed to grow unchecked is a disappointment. When was the last time a government agency or industry spawned by one just honestly said, "You don't need us any more, we should stop working for you now"?

-Not to open a can of worms, but this intelligence network, arguably, has done a good job of doing what it has been tasked to do. Again, I understand Bin Laden is unaccounted for, and there are many issues, but it seems like so far they have prevented another catastrophic attack from happening.

-Anything Congress is not actively overseeing actually does have a chance to work. Once Congress gets involved, things usually go to pot. For this reason, I say NOOOOOOOOOOO to anyone using this story to get Capitol Hill more involved.

-I am not as alarmed as the Post re: The proliferation of private sector contractors. I believe that top talent eventually ends up in the PS due to salary limitations and other considerations that go with being a G-???

In summary, it's a topic that I'm very interested in, and I see some things that need to be looked at and addressed, but do not see this as a "Sky is falling" type of situation.

Agree with both posts in general.

I'll add in that each different group does their own separate things.  One agency works on counterterrorism, one works on political espionage and another works on intelligence gathering in support of DoD activities.

What the articles/interviews fail to address are the various missions that have critical requirements and utilize separate resources.  I would also argue that using contractors is not a bad thing at all and they are more in support to the other agencies than anything else.  I live near DC and all the main organizations that are being put under the microscope.

The ultimate irony in this?  The people writing the article and doing the investigation are only able to skirt around on the outside of the subject matter.  Anyone who disclosed any real details on size/scope/function would be in violation of their clearance and subject to losing their clearance at the least and prosecution at the highest!

Just a couple of thoughts on contractors:

*You would probably find that most are former military and/or government workers who already had a clearance.
*If the government had to hire civil servants for all the work that contractors do our defense budget would be much more than the monstrosity it already is.

On the intelligence community in general

*If you sat down to think about all the areas where the US needs to operate to keep us safe and promote democracy your head would spin.