US spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary

US spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the President on a range of national security threats, according to the government’s top secret budget. The $52.6 billion “black budget” for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny. Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending since 2007, it has not divulged how it uses those funds or how it performs against the goals set by the President and Congress. The 178-page budget summary for the National Intelligence Program details the successes, failures and objectives of the 16 spy agencies that make up the US intelligence community, which has 107,035 employees. The summary describes cutting-edge technologies, agent recruiting and ongoing operations.

The National Security Agency and the CIA launched aggressive new programs to hack into foreign computer networks and sabotage systems described as "offensive cyber operations." The US spends $4.3 billion annually on cyber operations, according to the report. The figure includes efforts to prevent hackers from accessing U.S. systems.