Comment

WH Petition to Remove Private Industry from Intelligence Operations

5
Yeah Sure WhatEVs6/13/2013 7:30:10 pm PDT

re: #3 Major Tom

Convince me.

The idea that there are too many people with clearance is not compelling on its own to warrant what would probably be a massive disruption to our intelligence industry.

What, in this case, makes a government employee more trust worthy than a private company’s employees?

I’m not a fan of privatization for the sake of it, and I worry that the profit motive makes companies ill suited to many services that are necessary, but I can’t think of anything off hand that makes public superior to private in this instance.

cost, maybe… but would they “retain the talent” as they always say?

It’s not the number of people with clearances, its that they are private contractors whose allegiances are unknown. Intelligence work should be in-house with layers to watch for actions like this Snowden by people who are fully aligned with the US and our intelligence needs.

How many contractors? How many companies? What are each’s controls?

I might even go for one or two firms under exceptionally strict controls. Right now, it’s far too disparate.