Senator Bond says a recent series of reports in the Washington Post highlights the importance of reform in American intelligence gathering.
Bond, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Intelligence, says he’s read the Post’s reports that highlights a spy network that may be getting to hard to manage. Bond says he hopes Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has too.
“We are hoping that this article will put pressure on the Speaker, who has been blocking much needed oversight of the intelligence community by not allowing our authorization bill that’s been approved by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the White House to go forward,” Bond said in a conference call with reporters.
He says it’s an important step to limiting growth.
“We need to have ability for the intelligence committees, which spend a tremendous amount of time overseeing intelligence, to streamline the intelligence agencies to cut down on wasteful spending. Like the tremendous amounts of money, the billions of dollars we wasted in overhead systems,” Bond said.
He also addresses the Post’s concerns over the amount of private contracted intelligence gatherers. He says in the 1990’s, then-director John Deutch made significant cuts to the CIA staff, thinking computer and satellite systems could do the work. He says Deutch was wrong.
“So some had to be in contracts, and there will be need for more in contracts, but we have pushed the intelligence community to reduce by 10% each year the number of jobs that are outsourced to contractors,” Bond said.
He says there are also situations where outsourcing is the best financial decision.
“In other instances they have to go to specialized people who may only be needed occasionally, but have special skills that are called upon,” Bond said.
AUDIO: Ryan Famuliner reports [1 min MP3]
