New Snowden Leak Reveals Secret $52.6 Billion Budget for Intelligence Agencies

A new leak from Edward Snowden shows a massive budget for the military spy industrial complex that is hidden from the public

Photo: Pro Publica

By JG Vibes
Intellihub.com
August 30, 2013

The original leaks made my Edward Snowden were enough to totally change the whole collective dialogue about government spying, but those initial leaks were merely the tip of the iceberg.  There are countless other pieces of damning evidence that are slowly being leaked out over time.  Some of the most recent leaks are extremely interesting, showing a secret budget of almost $53 billion dollars that went to various intelligence agencies.[1]

Here are some of the details of intelligence spending revealed in the report:

• $11.5 billion of the proposed CIA budget — which overall, was up 56 percent since 2004 — was allocated to “data collection expenses” alone. 
• Of the NSA’s $10.8 billion budget, $5.2 billion were marked for “management, facilities and support.”
• Of the National Reconaissance Office’s $10.3 billion, $6 billion were allocated to data collection. 
• The requested budget for the National Geospatial Intelligence Program, which supplies “imagery and map-based intelligence” was up 108 percent since 2004. 
• $4.4 billion went to the General Defense Intelligence Program, which assesses foreign military activity for policymakers and U.S. military chiefs.[2]

“The United States has made a considerable investment in the Intelligence Community since the terror attacks of 9/11, a time which includes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction technology, and asymmetric threats in such areas as cyber-warfare,” Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. wrote in response to inquiries from The Post.
“Our budgets are classified as they could provide insight for foreign intelligence services to discern our top national priorities, capabilities and sources and methods that allow us to obtain information to counter threats,” he said.[3]

Sources:
[1] Unprecedented ‘black budget’ leak reveals the scope of $52 billion US spy complex – The Verge
[2] Snowden leaks intelligence ‘black budget’ to Washington Post – Aljazeera
[3] U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary – Washington Post