NRO Slush Fund

URL: 
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/front/spy-agency-money.html

   
      January 30, 1996
      
     
Spy Agency Said to Have Spare Billions


     The National Reconnaissance Office, the secret agency
     that builds spy satellites, lost track of more than $2 
billion in
     classified money last year, largely because of its own 
internal
     secrecy, intelligence officials say.

     
     In the past, congressional oversight of the reconnaissance 
office
     has been sketchy, because few members of Congress
     understood the highly technical language of spy satellites 
and some
     did not know what they were approving when they authorized 
billions
     of dollars a year in secret spending.

Am I remembering correctly that the NRO slush came to light, becasue the 
bigwigs were caught building a Taj Mahal of a headquarters building with 
the extra money? Oh, the banality of it!

They should have been been surveilling Amercian's listening habits to see 
who's a fan of Frank Zappa, it would have made for more sensational 
reading on the CP list.

Alan Horowitz
alanh@norfolk.infi.net