Less money much less intelligence in the U.S.

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The federal sequestration budget cuts threaten to return U.S. intelligence gathering capabilities back to pre-9/11 days if implemented wholesale, with furloughs and force reductions, U.S. spymaster James Clapper told the House intelligence committee on April 11.

Appearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, director of national intelligence James Clapper said among the growing threats from Cyber attack, weapons of mass destruction and Al Qaeda affiliates, blind budget cuts threaten U.S. security.

Clapper testified, along with CIA director John Brennan, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and FBI director Robert Mueller, at a hearing on worldwide threats. The public hearing on April 11 was followed by a classified briefing behind closed doors.

“You haven’t seen a whole lot of public discourse on the impact of these indiscriminate cuts on intelligence,” he said. “Comparatively speaking, our engagements with the media on this issue have been fairly restrained. So now let me be blunt for you and for the American people.”

According to GSN Clapper said the budget cuts will force him to chop about $4 billion, or seven percent of the National Intelligence Program.

i-HLS ISRAEL Homeland Security