USA Today recently reported in its Washington Section that the CIA plans to utilize more open sources and blogs in its intelligence work and outsource more of its intelligence software development to commercial contractors in an attempt to re-establish itself as the premiere world intelligence agency. The "Strategic Intent" is posted on the CIA public web site.
Defense Industry Daily reports that General Electric gobbled up Smith's Industries for $4.8B.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2007/01/ge-buys-smiths-aerospace-for-48b/index.php
Let's look at these developments for a moment and do our patriotic duty by reading along with the CIA (after all, they have announced they are reading this blog).
1. The new CIA approach comes exactly at the formation of the agency’s new "External Advisory Board", which consists of the following:
* A former Pentagon Chairman of the Joints Chief who is now a Northrop Grumman Corporation Board Member
* A deposed Chairman of the Board of Hewlett Packard Corporation (HP)
* A Former Deputy Secretary of Defense who now heads up a Washington think tank with Henry Kissinger
2. Northrop Grumman Corporation and Hewlett Packard are two huge government contractors in the Pentagon and CIA custom software development arena. Their combined contracts with the government just for IT are in the multiples of millions. I wonder what the advisory board is filling the CIA's ear with?
3. Washington "Think Tanks" are fronts for big-time lobbies, sophisticated in their operations, claiming non-partisanship, but tremendously influential on K Street. If a lobby cannot buy its way in, why not sit on the advisory board?
4. GE already has the military aircraft jet engine market sewn up. In buying Smith's, it takes one more major defense corporation out of the opposition and further reduces the government's competition tools. GE now joins the other monoliths such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon with tremendous leverage in the $500B +++ per year defense market.
5. Note the synergy that now exists between the Pentagon and the CIA. Note the influence by the major corporations and the think tanks.
6. Also note the balance in your bank account and your aspirations for future generations. Both are going down.
7. The huge Military Industrial Complex (MIC) continues to march. Taxes and the national debt are marching straight up the wall to support it.
8. Do you have any "Intelligence" to offer the CIA, the MIC and the Think Tanks?
