Question by BekindtoAnimals22: Why would the government want to privatize intelligence work? Isn’t that national security?
I’m watching CSPAN right now and they are discussing this. Why is the government trying to take over things like health care which is not their responsibility and dumping their real responsibilities such as military and intelligence? Doesn’t this seem a little strange since the Constitution calls national security a primary responsibility of the federal government?
Why would this be permitted. Doesn’t the constitution mean anything anymore? Isn’t our government over stepping its bounds? If so, why are we allowing them to do it?
Best answer:
Answer by signal20leo
95% of it already is and has been since I was at USCENTCOM in 1999.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
STEVEN F
October 26, 2011 at 12:00 am
You are accusing the current crop of politicians of WANTING to make sense. That is you major fallacy.
KarenL
October 26, 2011 at 12:36 am
Fear? Desire to break up one informational monopoly while seeking to build another? (Intelligence to Medical)
It depends on whom the government seeks to enslave/control — those in a foreign nation or within their own nation.
Builder
October 26, 2011 at 1:33 am
maybe it’s a way for ACORN to add another sub-organization to their group? SEIU rules!
not!
Monkin
October 26, 2011 at 2:06 am
We are starting to see the product of those sixties radicals and “I want to be a socialist because its cool” entering government for one purpose and one purpose only and that’s to destroy America as we’ve known her. When you say the government I take it you’re referring to our elected officials. But let me ask you, who put those officials in office, who entrusted them with the running of “our government”? I’m sorry to say we did, so its now going to be up to “us, “The American People” to take the time and start paying attention to whom we entrust the running of our government for our future generations. Maybe its time that we start demanding term limits for our Representatives in both house of congress,
no more ten and twenty years holding an office, just a thougt!
Igor
October 26, 2011 at 2:57 am
What good is the CIA?
dolphin314etc
October 26, 2011 at 3:03 am
Most intelligence work is done by the CIA, DIA, NSA, NRO and a few smaller agencies, not by private contractors. Contractors are sometimes used to translate phone calls, or to provide overhead viewing from landsat type platforms.
The problem with contractors is that the questions they get asked to look at or screen for contain a lot of “intelligence” content in themselves.
The beauty of using contractors is that certain kinds of analysis project can be ramped up very rapidly (or dialed back fast) without adding to the Federal payroll.
A lot of that work goes to RAND, CACI, and SAIC and the people doing it have crypto clearances, so there’s at least some containment of risk. They’re not going to hire “Joe the Ragman Security Consulting” to do sensitive translation or overhead viewing work.
Some small business contracts are let out through DARPA, but they are mainly for technology applications and designs. The contractors never get to know what is being done with their ideas. Again it’s a contained risk.
Short Answer: Cost Containment, Flexibility in Deployment of Resources, and Relatively Low Intelligence Leakage Risk (but some).