President Obama has set up a showdown with Congress over money for the construction of what has been called the “Western intelligence capital.”
The administration on Tuesday, in threatening to reject the defense appropriations bill making its way through the House, cited the legislative branch’s move to “limit expending funds associated with the construction of the Joint Intelligence Analysis Complex Consolidation (JIAC).”
The facility is set to be located at a Royal Air Force base near Croughton, England.
The Office of Management and Budget noted that the project is in “Phase 2,” and that moves by Congress to limit funding for the completion of the project would complicate plans elsewhere. The legislation “would limit action to realign forces at Lajes Field, Azores, until the Department conveys specific information to the Committee,” OMB commented.
“The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress on this issue in order to avoid the potential for significant financial costs during a period of constrained resources, uncertainty among our allies that share equities in the JIAC,” OMB stated. It also said the withholding of money would serve as a “disruption in intelligence support to” US troops.
The US closely shares intelligence with four other major Anglophone nations—Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—through an alliance known as “Five Eyes.”
Major concerns in the House about the JIAC have nothing to do with the alliance itself or civil liberties concerns. The dispute is primarily centered around “the criteria under which RAF Croughton was selected as the site” for the facility.
According to a publication issued by AFCEA–a non-profit “forum for military, government, academic and industry communities to collaborate”–the JIAC “will accommodate operations with reach into several global areas, including those rife with anti-terrorism operations.”
The group also pointed out that an Air Force budget document for the current fiscal year “says the project is necessary to support responsive and agile theater, joint and all-source intelligence analysis and production; to gain and maintain information dominance; and to support strategies of active security through Building Partnership Capacity and partner nation engagement missions.”
