National Space Intelligence Center proposed


It will be interesting to see if this makes it through conference and,
if it does, how the various agencies will react to it. There are a lot
of fiercely defended (and some quite expensive) rice bowls involved.

Also, I wonder what "Recent international events have only served to
highlight this problem" is talking about.


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From the FAS Secrecy News Extra for 26 May 2006:


The new Senate Intelligence Committee report on the Intelligence
Authorization Act for FY 2007 includes numerous other significant and
interesting provisions including: a requirement for a DNI report on
treatment of detainees (section 313); a requirement for a report on
alleged clandestine detention facilities (section 314); establishment
of a National Space Intelligence Center (section 410); and quite a bit
more.

See the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on the FY 2007
Intelligence Authorization Act, Senate Report 109-259, May 25, here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_rpt/srpt109-259.pdf

The underlying bill, S. 3237, is here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/s3237.pdf

The intelligence bill has been referred to the Senate Armed Services
Committee for a ten day period.

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From http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_rpt/srpt109-259.pdf

Section 410. National Space Intelligence Center.

The United States maintains a very large investment in satellites, and
this investment has grown dramatically in recent years. These
satellites serve the commercial and national security needs of the
nation. As such, a loss of any or all of these assets could do
tremendous harm to our economy and security.

At the same time, our investment in intelligence collection concerning
threats to our interests in space has declined markedly as a function
of our overall investment in space systems. Despite this significant
investment, some estimates indicate that we commit only 10 percent of
what we did nearly 25 years ago to the analysis of threats to space
systems. Recent international events have only served to highlight this
problem.

In an effort to better understand the future threats to our space
assets, as well as potential threats to the United States from space,
Section 410 establishes a National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC). It
is not the intent of the Committee that the NSIC be a physical
consolidation of existing intelligence entities with responsibilities
for various types of intelligence related to space. Rather, the
Committee believes that the first function of the NSIC is to coordinate
all collection, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence related to
space, as well as participate in Intelligence Community analyses of
requirements for space systems. The NSIC augments the existing efforts
of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) and Missile
and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC); it is not designed to replace
them. Indeed, the Committee intends that the NSIC work closely with
NASIC and MSIC to ensure a coordinated Intelligence Community response
to issues that intersect the responsibilities of all three
organizations.

The Director of the NSIC shall be the National Intelligence Officer for
Science and Technology, and the Committee encourages the appointment of
an Executive Director from the Senior Intelligence Service. Further
details related to the mission of the NSIC can be found in the
Classified Annex accompanying this Act.


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