ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: Federal Computer Week
26July2010 8:10amPDT
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Last week�s much anticipated Washington Post expose on the meteoric growth of the national intelligence community in the years since the 2001 terrorist attacks shines a light on an issue that people have talked about for years: the extent to which the federal government now relies on private contractors to perform a significant amount of its work.
Curiosity has been high about what effect the three-part Post series, written by Dana Priest and William Arkin, might have on government contracting practices, especially given Priest�s track record for raising issues that prompt government response. Her story five years ago about the existence of CIA black sites contributed to the shuttering of that program, while her reporting on the mistreatment of veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center resulted in the sacking of generals and improved care for veterans.
�Whenever Dana Priest writes about national security, the Earth moves,� wrote Marc Ambinder in a preview of the coverage in The Atlantic. �Anxiety about what the series might reveal, or what it might imply, is palpable.�
What the Post reported last week about the size, secrecy and make-up of the intelligence community paints a picture of a sprawling and duplicative government security apparatus that is utterly dependent on vendor help and whose effectiveness is difficult to determine, even for those who fund and run it...
