
U.S. spy agencies face big layoffs in government shutdown - r0h1n
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-usa-fiscal-spies-idUSBRE9900ZF20131001
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ianstallings
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.

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latj
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...

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DennisP
The CIA has been accused of drug trafficking on a number of occasions:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_traffic...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking)

~~~
ianstallings
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.

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znowi
_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 :)

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devx
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
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
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.

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moocowduckquack
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.

~~~
joshuahedlund
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdown)

It has actually happened several times in the last forty years.

~~~
moocowduckquack
That sort of confuses me even more. It isn't the sort of thing you would want
to develop into a tactic, it just seems risky as hell.

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humanrebar
Risky politically?

In practical terms, it isn't that risky. As has been pointed out, this has
happened before. The U.S. hasn't defaulted on its treasury bills. The Secret
Service doesn't stop protecting the President. Federally-funded highways are
still operating.

~~~
HarryHirsch
Meanwhile Curiosity, the Mars Rover, isn't moving. Thankfully, there aren't
any spacecraft scheduled for mission-critical operations (orbital insertion,
for example), or those would go unsupervised, too.

Most all NASA is on furlough, as if people didn't need the money.

A colleague is waiting for word on his grant application from the NIH.
Ordinarily his panel (~ 20 people) would converge on Washington this Friday
and decide on who gets funded. That is going to be postponed, and it's hard to
settle on a date when all 20 are available. Everyone has bought their plane
tickets already and cannot use them now; they will have to buy new tickets-
again on Federal funds.

Since the application is in already he cannot submit the same to the NSF, as
he would have done in case it got turned down.

The immediate cost, and the knock-on cost is immense.

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

