$59 billion black budget: US spying detailed in secret report
US spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of September 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information on a range of national security threats, according to the government's top secret budget.
The $US52.6 billion ($A59 billion) "black budget" for fiscal 2013, obtained by the Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny. Although the US government has released its overall level of intelligence spending annually since 2007, it has not divulged how it uses those funds or how it performs against the goals set by the US President and Congress.
The 178-page budget summary for the National Intelligence Program details the successes, failures and objectives of the 16 spy agencies that make up the US intelligence community, which has 107,035 employees.
(continued, too big to fail or succeed?)
