CIA's Refusal to Disclose Its Budget from Half a Century Ago Suggests It Has Something to Hide
Steven Aftergood, writing in the newsletter, Secrecy News (Feb. 5, 2004):
It is methodologically difficult for an outsider to pronounce a final judgment on the quality and integrity of CIA intelligence analysis regarding recent events. As Agency defenders are quick to point out, critics lack access to the full record on which a fair judgment should be based.
But one can deduce a lot about the intellectual rot at CIA by observing how the Agency stubbornly opposes declassification of fifty year old budget information.
CIA officials assert with a straight face that national security and intelligence methods would be placed at risk by disclosure of this antiquated information.
Is this incompetence? Is it dishonesty? That is not for us to say. But anyone can see that it is nonsense.
This week the CIA filed its pro forma opposition to an amended FAS lawsuit seeking declassification of intelligence budget figures from 1947 to 1970. See: