Funding for fighting al Qaeda could be cut, ex-spy chief says

Dennis Blair

/ Susan Walsh

Dennis Blair, one of only four men to have held the post of Director of National Intelligence since it was created after 9/11, suggests that the amount of money spent to fight al Qaeda terrorism -- which he estimates at $80 billion per year, not counting Iraq and Afghanistan war costs -- could be cut substantially.

Blair was DNI, supervising the CIA and over a dozen other intelligence agencies, from January 2009 until President Obama fired him in May 2010. Blair says the White House apparently "wanted a less aggressive, less integrating Director of National Intelligence" -- someone "not as strong."

When I interviewed him for CBS Radio News and for the French quarterly journal Politique Internationale, I wondered if the United States -- during this time of government spending cuts -- could afford the kind of intelligence and security we need. (Read a transcript of the interview.)

Blair, a retired Navy admiral who still has a keen interest in America's defense requirements, estimates that there are only 4,000 al Qaeda activists in the world. So he does the simple math and declares: "That is $20 million per terrorist, per year. Does that sound proportionate to other security priorities?"

Other analysts might say that the point of anti-terrorism spending is to prevent a major attack in the United States -- because bombings, for instance, in shopping centers could cause trillions of dollars of economic damage.

But Blair told me that security expenditures should be re-examined -- considering, even, that many more Americans fall victim to traffic accidents and murders, yet politicians do not call for huge programs in response to those.

"I think it is time to have that discussion on a rational, realstic basis, rather than the political basis of the past ten years," Blair said.

[stn_sage]

OMG! Could this be just ONE of a handful of true statements from
a government official for 2011?!
WHAT?! Just a scant estimated 4,000 Al Qaeda worldwide?!
That's NOT the impression Americans have been given the last 10-12 years!
Rumsfeld claimed there were several immense underground bunkers with thousands of Al Qaeda in each bunker! Not to mention the tens of thousands of Al Qaeda spread throughout the world!
Now, we find out there's a paltry 4,000 WORLDWIDE?!
How much has been spent on security operations and expansion of
government over the last 12 years on the LIE that the world
was overrun with these terrorists? A couple TRILLION dollars?
It's a heckuva lot more than $20 million, though that's bad enough!
ALL the people associated with this FRAUD, ought to have
THEIR personal wealth confiscated and turned over to the State,
and then be prosecuted and imprisoned!

[stn_sage]

to 'mike': You're missing the point, buddy! It's not the business
of ANYONE in govt, in any administration, TO MAKE TERRORISTS BY OFFERING THEM MONEY, WEAPONS, OR ANY OTHER ENTICEMENT TO ACT AS
ENEMIES AGAINST THE USA AND HER PEOPLES! Anyone, involved in such
activities, is guilty of treason! Such as all the govt employees involved in gun-running down in Mexico! AND, this govt should NOT be allocating future budgetary monies on the basis of CRIMES
that they are planning to perpetrate in the future, either!

So, this 80 billion dollar budget should probably be slashed to
a billion or LESS! In all likelihood, it's MOSTLY WASTEFUL
SPENDING!