"The NIP covers most of the programs overseen by the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. But not all, according to Steve Aftergood, who oversees the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, and has been following the issue for years.

"Defense intelligence programs that support military operations, like those that provide tactical information for use on the battlefield, are not part of the NIP. So the amount the United States spent in fiscal 2008 - which ran from Oct. 1, 2007, until Oct. 1, 2008 - on all intelligence programs was at least $57.4 billion or more, according to Aftergood.

"The Intelligence Community for years fought against disclosing its budgetary top line, contending that doing so would damage national security. But Congress in 2007 approved legislation implementing recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and one provision requires the ODNI to disclose the annual NIP budget total within 30 days of the end of every fiscal year.

" 'Disclosure is an important step as it is part of the process of normalizing intelligence and subjecting it to the rule of law,' said Aftergood."

Under the Obama administration, intelligence work must be de-privatized, headed by a outstanding public servant not a political flunky, and held to strict account. 

National Intelligence under McConnell is as disastrous as the rest of the corrupt and dangerous criminal Bush regime.