The ODNI's Wal-Mart Approach to Intel

The revelation of the Intelligence Community budget buried in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's (ODNI)'s now infamous PowerPoint made international news, but a closer at the presentation reveals much more about trends in the Intelligence Community than the top line budget. 

Now I am assuming that what Ms. Everett presented does represent ODNI policy and isn't just the creation of an overreaching executive.  The fact that the presentation itself had been saved 541 times and worked on for over 100 hours since its original creation in June 2005 does suggest that has been frequently reviewed and revised and most likely accurately represents ODNI policy.  After 541 saves, you would think the ODNI had it exactly like they wanted it--save for that embedded spreadsheet.

In the bureaucratic world of high government offices, the order in which priorities are are presented in a list is carefully determined to accurately present priorities.  The pecking order is everything, whether the bureaucracy was in the old Soviet Union or is in inside the Beltway.  This silly stuff matters.

So within that context, slide number 5," DNI Priorities" is an Intelligence Community jaw-dropper:

 

 

"Acquisitions Excellence" is placed before "Strengthen NCS and IMINT Discipline Managers."  Now its unclear what the heck strengthening a mission manager is and why this is necessary, but it is significant that the ODNI now places "Acquisitions Excellence" ahead of anything involving the National Clandestine Service (i.e. HUMINT or trench coats on the ground to the rest of us) and image intelligence.  I can only surmise that this means we're now going to win the War on Terror like Wal-Mart took over the retail world:  through a top-notch supply chain. 

Move aside, HUMNINT and IMINT, we've got contracts to execute!   We'll find bin Laden:  that's clearly outlined in the scope of service.

This is consistent with the big recent changes in the organization of the ODNI which were largely overlooked and little understood.  The original organization of ODNI under John Negroponte, the first DNI, consisted of four major Deputy Directors of National Intelligence (DDNIs:  Plans, Policy and Requirements; Collection; Analysis; and Management (read: Administration).  In a White House memo dated December 20, 2005, the order of succession of the DDNIs was established in case of the DNI and the Principal DDNI "have died, resigned, or otherwise become unable to perform the functions and duties of the office of the DNI."  Translation:  Management is the most important of the DDNIs--or it was under Negroponte.

The office was recently reorganized under its new management and one of the four principal DDNIs--Management--was replaced with--you guessed it, Acquisition.   Acquisition taking the place of Management in the ODNI says more about the importance of contracting out in the intelligence community than the entire PowerPoint presentation. 

Under Negroponte, a career diplomat with no industry ties, the highest acquisitions position in the ODNI was the Assistant Deputy Director and Senior Acquisitions Executive which was third in line under the Deputy Director of the DNI for Management.  Under Mike McConnell the new DDNI for Acquisitions has replaced the DDNI for Management in the org chart and, given that there is no new White House memo stating the order of succession of the DDNIs.  The White House needs to clarify if it really intends for this quartermaster position to third in line for the helm of the nation's Intelligence Community.

The reorganization took place on March 22, 2007, a little over a month after McConnell took office.  McConnell explained to Shaun Waterman of the UPI the need for the elevation of Acquisitions to a DDNI position:

Last week McConnell said the ability of U.S. agencies "to purchase, procure (and) acquire large-scale systems," had "atrophied" during the 1990s, as U.S. spending on intelligence declined 40 percent, "and there was something called the dot (com) boom."

Dot-what?  Is that like the Internets? 

More seriously, McConnell's justification ignores the post-9/11 increases in spending on intelligence.  Moreover, according to the ODNI figures in the spreadsheet in the Everett PowerPoint presentation, Intelligence Community spending on contractors went from $17.54 billion in 2000 to $42 billion in 2005.  Judging from that increase, the Intelligence Community is probably not having a hard time purchasing, procuring and acquiring large-scale systems, not a hard enough one to justify the DDNI level Acquisitions position.

McConnell also stated:

"Fungible skills inside the government, very sophisticated program management skills, engineering talent, information technology talent, was drawn out to industry where the jobs were more plentiful, so we lost a generation in our community in our ability to buy, purchase, with skill and acumen, large-scale systems."

Again, the data indicates that the government is not at all impaired when it comes to buying and purchasing, unless, of course, $42 billion spent toward private contractors--70% of the Intelligence Community budget--is not enough.  There is still $18 billion not allocated to contractors. 

It's not the ability to buy that's being lost--it's the ability to spy.

 

 

Placing Mike McConnell, the former chairman of the board of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the private intel industry's de facto lobbying group, in charge of the nation's intelligence as the DNI got quick results.  The ODNI is open for business--or as they put it so cleverly and honestly in the same presentation, "We can't spy...if we can't buy."

 

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Comments

[Joshua Foust]

While it is shocking, I guess it shouldn't be surprising. After all, McConnell is a classic case of the revolving door, moving between higher and higher government positions and executive jobs at various contractors. I mean, he moved into ODNI after being in charge of Intelligence and National Security at Booz-Allen, and after running a lobbying group for Intel contractors. That he has made utilizing intel contractors a new keystone of ODNI isn't really out of character, though it is most certainly outrageous.

[Josh Rovner]

McConnell's explanation is in the current issue of Foreign Affairs:

"The U.S. intelligence community's European colleagues... are able to build, launch, and operate a new satellite system in about five years and for less than a billion dollars. By contrast, a U.S. spy satellite system, although admittedly more complex than a European equivalent, can take more than ten years and cost billions of dollars to develop. This is due, in part, to the larger number of requirements the United States tends to place on individual systems and its higher aversion to the risk of mission failure, both of which increase the systems' complexity and the demands placed on the technology. If the U.S. intelligence community is to close this gap, it will need a more disciplined, agile acquisition policy. It was to this end that the DNI recently elevated the task of acquisitions to the level of a deputy director of national intelligence (there are four deputy directors)."

[R J Hillhouse]

McConnell: If the U.S. intelligence community is to close this gap...

Holy crap! We need those contractors to close the satellite purchasing gap with the Europeans!

Can a missile acquisitions gap be far away?

[Retired]

It looks like the intelligence community is on the same acquisition "track" as that of the Air Force, i.e., the contracting out of both technical requirements as well as program/project management responsibilities. A couple of decades of this resulted in the Air Force Space Command having almost no one in house below the rank of lieutenant colonel who knew how to manage a program. Now, systems management and integration contractors oversee design and build contractors, similar to high caste machines independently designing building android armies in Star Wars II. Could Dr. Hillhouse be the Princess Leia that saves us from this before it is too late?

[R J Hillhouse]

Princess Leia???!!!!

Just as I was starting to get on board with the dangers of the "acquisition gap" and identify with Dr. Strangelove and the mine shaft gap he warned the president about!

Aside from Princess Leia, excellent analogy with Star War II. The current trends are chilling.