Intelligence Office Has Swollen, House Panel Says (Negroponte concerns)

[sabra]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-intel31mar31,1,931614.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

Intelligence Office Has Swollen, House Panel Says
A bipartisan vote seeks to curb funds if further growth of the oversight agency can't be justified. A separate bid to stem NSA funds is killed.

WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee voted Thursday to withhold funding from the nation's intelligence director over concerns that his office, which was created to streamline operations in the nation's spy community, is instead becoming bloated and bureaucratic.

At the same time, Republicans on the House panel defeated a Democratic push to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in spy agency funding until the Bush administration provided more information about a controversial domestic espionage program being conducted by the National Security Agency.

..

The move to withhold funding still must be approved by the full House as well as the Senate. But it reflects rising frustration among House lawmakers with an office that was created less than two years ago to solve communication breakdowns and other problems that plagued the intelligence community leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq.

...

"We're concerned about some of the steps that are going on" at Negroponte's office, said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Hoekstra said Negroponte needed to demonstrate that any further expansion would improve coordination among intelligence agencies, and would not amount to "putting in more lawyers and slowing down the process."

[saltpoint]

1. We should all be concerned about dinner if

John Negroponte is the cook.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. I strongly doubt...

That Negroponte even knows half of what is going on. Recent reports state he is a disengaged administrator, spending short periods at his office and long periods at his private club, getting massages, eating and drinking very well and generally fscking off. These hires are likely coming from the minions below him, who are getting their friends on the government intelligence sugartit, getting some of that long green.

You can bet the vastest number of them are the right color, from the right families, wear the right class rings(betcha Princeton is a biggun) and school ties and have names like "Skipper", "Jonathan" and <initial>.<anything>.