ODNI Dismisses Inadvertent Release of Intel Budget Data
The recent inadvertent disclosure of intelligence spending figures concealed in an official PowerPoint briefing does not reveal the size of the intelligence budget, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said this week (pdf).
Close scrutiny of a PowerPoint slide presented by ODNI official Terri Everett (.ppt) at a conference last month turned up budget numbers that were used to create a bar graph showing relative annual spending on intelligence contractors, and suggested that overall annual intelligence spending could be $60 billion or more.
But “the specific bar graphs on the slides and their underlying data were based on a small, anecdotal sample of a portion of Intelligence Community contracting activities. As a result, this data cannot be used to derive either the overall Intelligence Community budget, or a breakdown of any portion of the budget,” the ODNI said in a June 19 statement.
“The overall Intelligence Community budget and its components are classified to protect the national security interests of the United States,” the ODNI added, a claim that is widely disputed. Legislation (pdf) pending in the Senate would require annual disclosure of the national intelligence program budget.
Only through independent monitoring, reporting, and investigation on data centers’ environmental impacts, can we promote public trust, inform the allocation of natural resources, and enable responsible governance on future data center development.
Jobseekers, employees at smaller organizations, and local public workers need more than a weekend crash course in AI. They need practice choosing useful tasks, protecting data, testing outputs, and explaining where human judgment remains necessary.
The Colorado Succession Through Apprenticeship Program would turn two problems into one solution: a state-coordinated pipeline that trains graduates to evaluate and operate existing businesses, then connects them to owners ready to show them the ropes and eventually hand over the keys.
Colorado ranks second-to-last in housing affordability. Blame Colorado’s notoriously slow permitting system. It’s time for an upgrade.