$75 Billion Tab for Intelligence

Keeping America's spies and intelligence employees in business costs the country $75 billion. Dennis C. Blair, director of National Intelligence, told reporters the price tag in a conference call Tuesday. Blair emphasized that the tab did not differentiate between national and military intelligence work. As chief of intelligence, Blair has 200,000 people in his employ. The last time similar figures were released was 1994, when the number was less than $27 billion. "We don't publish—nor am I going to make news tonight telling you how much each individual agency is funded for and what it's used for," Blair said.