September/October 2008 Issue

How to Fix It: Stop Outsourcing the CIA

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“Almost 60 percent of the cia is contractors doing everything from running agents to counterintelligence. There’s a lack of oversight, lack of accountability, and brain drain. Taxpayers pay a lot of money to recruit people out of college and then send them through this elaborate training procedure down at the ‘farm,’ and then they’re less than fully productive for maybe the first five years. Finally they start being productive, and that’s when they start getting recruited by these contractors, who offer them twice as much money. And taxpayers end up paying twice as much for them through these contractors.”

Read an extended interview with James Bamford about the Bush legacy here.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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