FACT CHECK: Bush?s Hand-Picked Choice for Head of the CIA Called for Huge Cuts in Intel
Porter Goss, Hand-Picked By Bush to Head CIA, Wanted to Cut Intel More Than Kerry, And Specifically Targeted ?Human Intelligence.? ?The Bush reelection campaign has been blasting Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry as deeply irresponsible for proposing intelligence cuts at the same time. A Bush campaign ad released on Aug. 13 carried a headline: ?John Kerry...proposed slashing Intelligence Budget 6 Billion Dollars.? But the cuts Goss supported are larger than those proposed by Kerry and specifically targeted the ?human intelligence? that has recently been found lacking. The recent report by the commission probing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks called for more spending on human intelligence.?
· Goss Cuts Would Have Cut Intelligence Personnel By 4% or More. ?But three months earlier, on June 22, Goss was one of six original co-sponsors of legislation titled H.R. 1923, called the Restructuring a Limited Government Act. Among other things, the legislation, written by then-Rules Committee Chairman Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.), directed that "the president shall, for each of fiscal years 1996 through 2000, reduce the total number of military and civilian personnel employed by, or assigned or detailed to, elements of the Intelligence Community by not less than 4 percent of the baseline number" of employees on Sept. 30, 1995. There are believed to be about 20,000 employees of the CIA, and an unknown number of others in the military intelligence agencies.
Bush Administration Proposed Intelligence Cuts AFTER 9-11. In the early days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Bush White House cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds by the FBI, an internal administration budget document shows. The document, dated Oct. 12, 2001, shows that the FBI requested $1.5 billion in additional funds to enhance its counterterrorism efforts with the creation of 2,024 positions. But the White House Office of Management and Budget cut that request to $531 million. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, working within the White House limits, cut the FBI's request for items such as computer networking and foreign language intercepts by half, cut a cyber-security request by three quarters and eliminated entirely a request for ?collaborative capabilities.?
Bush Provided Only One-Third Of Counter-Terrorism Funding In 2005 Budget. Bush?s FY05 intelligence budget only provided a third of the counter-terrorism funding that our intelligence agencies said they needed to fight terrorism next year. The CIA Counterterrorism Center is only funded at 20% in the President?s budget request. The other 80% of the money it needs to fight al Qaeda will have to come from supplementals. The bill would authorize an estimated $40 billion for intelligence spending, including roughly $30 billion for defense intelligence agencies and $5 billion for the CIA. Exact funding levels are classified.
Washington Post: Republican Criticism on Kerry Intel Record is Wrong. ?President Bush, in his first major assault on Sen. John F. Kerry's legislative record, said this week that his Democratic opponent proposed a $1.5 billion cut in the intelligence budget, a proposal that would ?gut the intelligence services,? and one that had no co-sponsors because it was ?deeply irresponsible??.In fact, the Republican-led Congress that year approved legislation that resulted in $3.8 billion being cut over five years from the budget of the National Reconnaissance Office -- the same program Kerry said he was targeting.?
In 1995, a Secret Billion Dollar Slush Fund was Found in the Intelligence Budget Which Served as a Opportunity To Cut Waste And Abuse. ?The White House said yesterday it was "inexcusable" that the top secret agency that manages U.S. spy satellites had reportedly hoarded $ 1 billion in unspent funds?The unspent funds were discovered after the Senate intelligence committee questioned a luxurious $ 300 million headquarters the NRO was building in a Washington suburb.? Kerry was part of bipartisan effort to cut waste & abuse in the NRO. The $1.5 billion cut Kerry proposed represented about the same amount Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), then chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told the Senate that same day he wanted to cut from the intelligence spending bill based on unspent, secret funds that had been accumulated ?without informing the Pentagon, CIA or Congress.?
Kerry Strongly Supports Increased Intelligence Funding ? Including $250 Billion in the Previous 8 Years ? A 50% Increase Since 1996 ? John Kerry has strongly supported recent increases in Intelligence funding, and, in the wake of 9/11, has supported the bipartisan call for an even larger increase in intelligence funding. According to a report issued by the Center for Defense Information entitled ?Intelligence Funding and the War on Terror? John Kerry has supported approximately $250 billion in Intelligence funding over the past eight years alone. The report concludes that Kerry has supported a 50% increase in intelligence funding since 1996.
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