Shorrock, Tim. Spies For Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. 439 pages.

From interception of emails, keyword triggering within telephone communications, satellite and microwave data analysis, software development, agency networking and data sharing, covert operations, contracting for renditions, and interrogation of prisoners, it's all getting privatized through outsourcing. It's a gravy train for U.S. corporations, and it's lucrative for federal employees who quit and go corporate. Some 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget has been outsourced since the late 1990s.

In-Q-Tel was formed by the CIA in 1999 with $300 million in federal funds for about 90 companies. Spy-in-the-sky Keyhole, Inc., partially funded by In-Q-Tel, was acquired by Google in 2004. Today Google shares satellites with other contractors and takes pictures of your house. Their software is the standard for geospatial intelligence, and they provide search software to federal agencies. That's just one tiny example. Former NSA and CIA directors, such as Kenneth Minihan, Bobby Ray Inman, Mike McConnell, James Woolsey, John Deutch, and George Tenet, have been on the boards of intelligence contractors. Those are just the top guys -- if you reach down into the bureaucracy, the list gets much longer. The war on terrorism increased federal spending on national security programs, and made such close collaboration seem urgent and necessary.
ISBN 0-7432-8224-8

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