Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security
“The damage [of the shutdown] will be insidious,” said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in front of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “This is a dreamland for foreign intelligence services to recruit.”
“[It] seriously damages our ability to protect the safety and security of this nation.”
“Damage will accumulate over time.”
How big is the impact? Big.
NSA Director, General Keith alexander reported that 70 percent of NSA and the IC community is being furloughed. That includes 4,000 computer scientists, 1,000 mathematicians and almost 1,000 Ph.Ds from the NSA alone. The CIA expects to furlough 12,500 civilians according to Reuters’ sources.
Those levels are supposed to be operational at present only at the “imminent threat” level. This means they are pursuing known threats and continuing only the most essential intelligence operations only.
As far as the prevention of low-scale foreign intelligence and even foreign terrorist activities go, this places Americans in present danger- operating on the red line of national security. The Military continues unaffected but with essential IOUs in payment to service members. Foreign intelligence sharing may also be at least partially affected.
This was much more than at least some Republicans were even aware of. Senator Lindsey Gram (R-NC) said, “You scared the hell out of us!”
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “When you take that number of civilian employees out of the mix of everyday planning and working…you’re going to impact readiness. There’s no point in kidding about that. But [Americans] should not be concerned that their security is now in jeopardy. It is not; it will not be.”
The President canceled his trip to Malaysia and summoned the Congressional leaders to the White House to resolve the issue of the Federal Government shutdown.
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