6 ms·

U.S. spy agencies face big layoffs in government shutdown

43 points by r0h1n 13y ago

ianstallings 13y ago
AFAIK, from my super super secret source (I joke), is that all of the HUMINT and SIGINT will still occur but the analysis will be effected, mainly because the essential analysts won't have their typical support staff. For instance, maybe they need a particular piece of hardware. Procurement of that hardware will suffer because that dept. will be staffed by a "skeleton crew". A lot of those workers are contractors and will be placed on the bench, some paid some not, depending on who they work for. The Federal workers seem outraged in the DC area, but most civilian workers are used to the instability of markets and have little pity, from what I hear. That's public info, not private. No super secret source for that one, just callers on WTOP.
- latj 13y ago
  If I was a spy agency, years ago I would have started coming up with alternate streams of income to be less dependent on the economy and the U.S. Congress. I dunno- maybe sell drugs, guns, information...
  - DennisP 13y ago
    The CIA has been accused of drug trafficking on a number of occasions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_traffic...
    - ianstallings 13y ago
      They were also accused of creating the "superdollar" aka the "supernote": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar But you can see it's all speculation, based on things they have not said, etc.
- sentenza 13y ago
  I wonder if they combine this with the new "90% of admins will be replaced by magic" credo to create an actual internal infrastructure meltdown. All it takes is somebody with some say in the matter to decide that it would all work out if they just "hurried up" with the admin automation part.
moocowduckquack 13y ago
Can someone from the US explain this whole "Government Shutdown" thing for outsiders please. I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say that this is not what we had expected to occur.
- ihsw 13y ago
  Annual budgets are debated as legislation, and that particular piece of legislation did not pass. As such, non-essential employees will not be paid so they're being given time off.
  - moocowduckquack 13y ago
    I get that bit, I am just amazed that you can sabotage your own civil legislature that easily.
    - sliverstorm 13y ago
      This is the legislature sabotaging themselves. They set a deadline for themselves, and then as the deadline approaches they try to use it as political leverage and go through standard varieties of political posturing, e.g. "The other party would rather let the government shut down than pass our bill!"
      - humanrebar 13y ago
        That and Congress hasn't passed a budget in years.
    - ihsw 13y ago
      It's not supposed to happen, but the trend in America seems to be leaning towards hyper-majorities where bipartisan cooperation is the exception rather than the rule. Gerrymandering is used to effectively destroy any semblance of political competition -- congressional representatives can safely rely on a guaranteed re-election which results in them never having to work with "the other side." This results in political platforms built on hatred and fear, "See! We hate them as much as you do!" and so forth. Obstructionism and other forms of political football are the basis of our legislature. It's really sad because we end up measuring our success by how much we're destroying the other party's accomplishments rather than celebrating our own.
znowi 13y ago
More than 70 percent of the civilians working for U.S. spy agencies have been deemed "non-essential" employees ...due to great effectiveness of the recently deployed digital surveillance systems like PRISM and the help of big technology companies like Google and Facebook :)
devx 13y ago
It just means they will automate the spying more. Clapper already said he intends to use 90 percent fewer system admins. I wouldn't take this as meaning there's going to be significantly less spying or anything like that.
- r00fus 13y ago
  This fills me with signifiant unease. So we have all this data here, ready for mining from corporate or foreign interests (ok, well the ones not already in bed with the USG) and all they have to do is attack the weakened infrastructure. If I was a such an outside entity, a few million spent in forcing the shutdown sounds like a well-spent investment so I can swoop in and pick up the pieces. What a clusterfuck.
  - etiam 13y ago
    I would actually think that on the whole this reduces the risk exposure for the data trove. The reason this fills /me/ with unease is rather that it's all to compatible with cleaning out people from the organisations who might have conscientious objections what comes next.
ARothfusz 13y ago
Well, that explains today's 'Show HN: "Who is hiring"'

43 points by r0h1n 13y ago

AFAIK, from my super super secret source (I joke), is that all of the HUMINT and SIGINT will still occur but the analysis will be effected, mainly because the essential analysts won't have their typical support staff. For instance, maybe they need a particular piece of hardware. Procurement of that hardware will suffer because that dept. will be staffed by a "skeleton crew". A lot of those workers are contractors and will be placed on the bench, some paid some not, depending on who they work for. The Federal workers seem outraged in the DC area, but most civilian workers are used to the instability of markets and have little pity, from what I hear. That's public info, not private. No super secret source for that one, just callers on WTOP.

latj 13y ago
If I was a spy agency, years ago I would have started coming up with alternate streams of income to be less dependent on the economy and the U.S. Congress. I dunno- maybe sell drugs, guns, information...
- DennisP 13y ago
  The CIA has been accused of drug trafficking on a number of occasions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_traffic...
  - ianstallings 13y ago
    They were also accused of creating the "superdollar" aka the "supernote": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar But you can see it's all speculation, based on things they have not said, etc.
sentenza 13y ago
I wonder if they combine this with the new "90% of admins will be replaced by magic" credo to create an actual internal infrastructure meltdown. All it takes is somebody with some say in the matter to decide that it would all work out if they just "hurried up" with the admin automation part.

moocowduckquack 13y ago

Can someone from the US explain this whole "Government Shutdown" thing for outsiders please. I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say that this is not what we had expected to occur.

ihsw 13y ago
Annual budgets are debated as legislation, and that particular piece of legislation did not pass. As such, non-essential employees will not be paid so they're being given time off.
- moocowduckquack 13y ago
  I get that bit, I am just amazed that you can sabotage your own civil legislature that easily.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    This is the legislature sabotaging themselves. They set a deadline for themselves, and then as the deadline approaches they try to use it as political leverage and go through standard varieties of political posturing, e.g. "The other party would rather let the government shut down than pass our bill!"
    - humanrebar 13y ago
      That and Congress hasn't passed a budget in years.
  - ihsw 13y ago
    It's not supposed to happen, but the trend in America seems to be leaning towards hyper-majorities where bipartisan cooperation is the exception rather than the rule. Gerrymandering is used to effectively destroy any semblance of political competition -- congressional representatives can safely rely on a guaranteed re-election which results in them never having to work with "the other side." This results in political platforms built on hatred and fear, "See! We hate them as much as you do!" and so forth. Obstructionism and other forms of political football are the basis of our legislature. It's really sad because we end up measuring our success by how much we're destroying the other party's accomplishments rather than celebrating our own.

znowi 13y ago

More than 70 percent of the civilians working for U.S. spy agencies have been deemed "non-essential" employees ...due to great effectiveness of the recently deployed digital surveillance systems like PRISM and the help of big technology companies like Google and Facebook :)

devx 13y ago

It just means they will automate the spying more. Clapper already said he intends to use 90 percent fewer system admins. I wouldn't take this as meaning there's going to be significantly less spying or anything like that.

r00fus 13y ago
This fills me with signifiant unease. So we have all this data here, ready for mining from corporate or foreign interests (ok, well the ones not already in bed with the USG) and all they have to do is attack the weakened infrastructure. If I was a such an outside entity, a few million spent in forcing the shutdown sounds like a well-spent investment so I can swoop in and pick up the pieces. What a clusterfuck.
- etiam 13y ago
  I would actually think that on the whole this reduces the risk exposure for the data trove. The reason this fills /me/ with unease is rather that it's all to compatible with cleaning out people from the organisations who might have conscientious objections what comes next.

ARothfusz 13y ago

Well, that explains today's 'Show HN: "Who is hiring"'