October 31, 2007	Wednesday	Shawwal 18, 1428

WASHINGTON: The US intelligence budget for fiscal 2007 was $43.5 billion, national intelligence chief Mike McConnell disclosed on Tuesday, making public a figure that has been kept secret for nearly a decade.

McConnell announced the 2007 aggregate appropriations for the national intelligence programme to comply with a law passed by Congress requiring the disclosure.

“The aggregate amount appropriated to the NIP for fiscal year 2007 was $43.5 billion,” he said in a statement.

The figure includes appropriations for the CIA, the Defence Intelligence Agency, other Defence Department intelligence collection agencies, the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and FBI intelligence programmes. It does not include the intelligence budgets of the separate military services.

“Beyond the disclosure of the top line figure, there will be no other disclosures of currently classified budget information because such disclosures could harm national security,” McConnell said.

The last US intelligence budget made public was the $26.7 billion appropriated for fiscal 1998.

CIA director George Tenet, who said he saw no harm to national security in doing so, also revealed that the fiscal 1997 total was $26.6 billion.—AFP