8/29/2008: Security News Brief: US Intelligence Agencies Hire Outside
Contractors:

More than a quarter of the U.S. intelligence agencies' employees are
outside contractors, hired to fill in gaps in the military and
civilian work force, according to a survey of the 16 intelligence
agencies.

That is roughly on par with last year's total, the first year the
national intelligence director's office tried to count the outside
help, Ronald Sanders, the intelligence director's human resource
chief, told reporters Wednesday.

The number of government employees at U.S. intelligence agencies is
classified, but Sanders confirmed it is more than 100,000. Contractors
are not included in that total. Sanders said 27 percent of the total
number of intelligence employees are contractors. With around 100,000
as a baseline, that translates to an estimated 35,000 to 40,000
private contractors working for agencies like the CIA and the National
Security Agency.

Of that number, 27 percent of the contractors engage in intelligence
collection and operations, 19 percent conduct analysis and produce
reports, and 22 percent work on information technology. Another 19
percent are in support and management positions, with a small number
in research and development and other activities.

In the survey, the agencies said more than half of the contractors
were hired because of their unique capabilities. Ten percent were
hired because they were more cost effective than civil servants. The
remainder were hired on a temporary or project basis, many because the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan caused a spike in intelligence needs.

The vast majority of the roughly 40,000 contractors are based in the
Washington area. Others are spread throughout the United States and
some in foreign countries.

Congress required the report because of concern that spy agencies
might be relying too heavily on outside contractors to conduct
sensitive intelligence work.

Like the U.S. military, intelligence agency payrolls were cut
significantly in the 1990s.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there was a scramble to
hire new analysts and case officers. By last year, the intelligence
work force had grown by 20 percent to its current level of roughly
100,000, according to a 2007 congressional report.

Congress is interested in the number of contractors and their
functions, particularly those that carry out sensitive intelligence
work like interrogations and analysis. CIA Director Michael Hayden
told Congress in February that contractors have participated in the
CIA's harshest interrogations.

The House passed legislation this month that would prohibit private
contractors from detaining and interrogating prisoners or from
participating in moving prisoners from one government's control to
another, a practice known as rendition. The Senate Intelligence
Committee voted to bar the CIA from using contractors in
interrogation, and the Senate Armed Services Committee has voted to
ban them from military interrogations as well.

Sanders said the average U.S. intelligence employee costs the
government about $125,000 per year, including long-term benefits. The
average contractor costs the U.S. government about $207,000 for labor,
not including overhead.

While more expensive day to day, contractors can be hired and fired
more easily than government employees, and many have rare language or
technical skills that government employees cannot match, Sanders said.

Hayden announced in 2007 his intention to reduce the CIA's reliance on
outside contractors by 10 percent before the end of fiscal year 2008
on Sept. 30. Sanders said in some cases the CIA is hiring contractors
away from their companies and into the agency work force. The
intelligence agencies spent $43 billion last year. Sanders would not
say what percentage went toward contractors.
Source: Morning Security News Brief via Internal Company News Wire