US Spy Spending Revealed

[Jokersmoker]

A total of 80 billion dollars was spent for Intelligence activities in the US in 2010.
See http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/28/us.spy.spending/index.html?hpt=T2
On the lighter side the director of National Intelligence is James Clapper.
ONLY IN AMERICA FOLKS!

Jokersmoker

 

[Alone]

Annnnddd....begin.

 

[lxskllr]

It's higher than that. Money gets laundered through other governmental agencies to hide the true amount.

 

[sjwaste]

That's not a surprising number. Frankly, if they want to make cuts, I'd rather they do it on the military intel side.

 

[Alone]

That's not a surprising number. Frankly, if they want to make cuts, I'd rather they do it on the military intel side.

...What? I'm assuming this is a troll post.

 

[sjwaste]

...What? I'm assuming this is a troll post.

It's not. I read the article. It talked about cuts on the civilian side.

I'd rather them keep the intel budget on the civilian side.

 

[Alone]

It's not. I read the article. It talked about cuts on the civilian side.

I'd rather them keep the intel budget on the civilian side.

Good thing you don't get to make these decisions, then.

But then again, I imagine if I said military intelligence was essential you'd probably throw Iraq or Afghanistan at me or some shit.

 

[Riceninja]

does this cover treadstone/blackbriar? or is that off the books

 

[Alone]

does this cover treadstone/blackbriar? or is that off the books

Turn off the tape recorder.

 

[sjwaste]

Good thing you don't get to make these decisions, then.

But then again, I imagine if I said military intelligence was essential you'd probably throw Iraq or Afghanistan at me or some shit.

Sorry, I've hit my trolling quota for this year. You got me.

I don't give a shit how we split it up, but I don't really find the intel number to be all that alarming. There's much more waste in and around defense than that.

 

[Alone]

You're probably right about that. I don't think many of us (if any at all) are qualified to judge spending in these areas.

 

[tcsenter]

Check out how much we've spent on the DOD just in the past 10 years - NOT including operational costs on Iraq and Afghanistan. Can you say military industrial complex?

I'm as much of a fan of having the world's strongest and most capable military as anyone. But I don't see the merit or value of having the world's strongest military to some exponent (e.g. x 10). Jeesus H.

 

[Nik]

That's a tiny drop in the bucket of the national budget. I don't believe for one second that number is correct.

 

[sdifox]

That's probably just the above board spending.

 

[0roo0roo]

% of gdp... http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html

 

[destrekor]

Check out how much we've spent on the DOD just in the past 10 years - NOT including operational costs on Iraq and Afghanistan. Can you say military industrial complex?

I'm as much of a fan of having the world's strongest and most capable military as anyone. But I don't see the merit or value of having the world's strongest military to some exponent (e.g. x 10). Jeesus H.

The problem with military spending is pretty simple: the government gets billed for whatever they are giving the military branches, and then pay it. Hell, it's probably an auto bill-pay system, they never see the numbers.


And because of that, things do cost far more than they ever should. Weapons, weapon accessories, various equipment, research costs - the bill is insane, but it gets paid.

One thing I would definitely argue though: military intel spending should never be on the chopping block. A lot of the most useful intelligence during the war comes from the military, not the civilian agencies.

 

[Drako]

I'm actually surprised it's that low. :thumbsup:

 

[JTsyo]

Check out how much we've spent on the DOD just in the past 10 years - NOT including operational costs on Iraq and Afghanistan. Can you say military industrial complex?

I'm as much of a fan of having the world's strongest and most capable military as anyone. But I don't see the merit or value of having the world's strongest military to some exponent (e.g. x 10). Jeesus H.

Not to mention that most of the other top militaries are our allies.

 

[invidia]

Shhh...... It's this spending that's keeping me at work. Othewise where else am I going to get money for hookers and blow.