U.S. Intelligence Spending Increased by 12% Last Year, to $81.5 Billion

Trump appeared to be against the intelligence communities, or at least that's what much of the media made it look like. In actuality, data provided by the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says Trump's administration has increased spending on civilian and military intelligence by 11.6% (or $8.4 billion) in the last fiscal year -- between October 1, 2017 and September 30, 2018 -- to $81.5 billion.

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There are some general figures about expenditures, but the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence won't disclose specifics about where the money goes. They say doing so would potentially "harm national security". But a little bit of a breakdown into the spending was provided.

The National Intelligence Program's (NIP) budget is controlled by the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats. It's budget covers funding for the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of State (DoS), Office of Intelligence Support, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Department of Treasury and Defense Cryptologic Program (DCP). This budget increased to $59.4 billions, up from $54.6 billion in 2017.

The Military Intelligence Budget increased as well, from $18.4 billion in 2017, to $22.1 billion. Much of the increase in spending from the Trump administration is on personnel, equipment and operations.

Since the September 11, 2001 event until 2013, the government has spent more than $500 billion on intelligence. The total spending on military and non-military intelligence during the Cold War era up to the 1980s was $71 billion. That indicates that the past 17 years has been much more paranoid and distrusting than the war on Communism of before.

A large portion of the intelligence spending is directed at the former communist enemy of Russia, as well as still-communist China and North Korea, with a ratcheting up of cyber warfare activities. Offensive cyber capabilities has been a focus, as hacking from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran have become a greater concern.

Investment into human intelligence has also been expanded, and the CIA has seen an increase in paramilitary actions, such as drone strikes.

It seems like the American Empire is positioning itself to know what their enemies are going do before they do it. Will we see an increase in military activity in the coming years? What about all the fear-hype in the alternative media regarding an alleged WWIII? I've been hearing about that since 2006. Maybe we've been in a perpetual state of world war with conflict never-ending, but we just don't realize it...

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