03/28/2024
Spread the love

The Elizabethtown Rotary Club learned about national security during their weekly luncheon meeting on Wednesday at Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery. Rotarian Al Pingree, who is retired from the US Marine Corps, spoke about the various entities that make up the network of national security that keeps us all safe from harm.

Pingree said the items that one views in the news make up essentially about one-tenth of all of the intelligence information that is gathered and disseminated to the President and his staff or to Congress. Pingree told those gathered that there are 17 different intelligence gathering entities that make up our intelligence gathering network. He noted that the budget for many of the intelligence gathering operations is classified to protect the various operations that are ongoing, so it is difficult to determine the exact amount the United States spends.

Some of the entities such as Department of Homeland Security and FBI National Security Branch were created after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. He noted that many of these intelligence agencies perform redundant work but that it needs to be performed that way in order to verify and vet potential threats to national security.

 

About Author