October 7, 2001

While the US intelligence budget has steadily climbed to $30 billion, and the anti-terrorism budget to $12 billion, relatively little of this is spent on human intelligence. There are several reasons for this. The 1975 Church Committee limited the CIA's abilities to conduct operations, President Carter dismissed half of the human spies to refocus the agency on technical intelligence gathering, and President Clinton issued new rules prohibiting (without special permission) the use as sources or agents those foreigners who were guilty of human rights violations or war crimes.--Stephen V Cole