CIA/FBI budget fearmongering is John Kiriakou’s account of how both agencies have historically justified budget increases to Congress. He says the FBI has never had a budget cut in its history, crediting J. Edgar Hoover’s 48-year tenure for pioneering the tactic: appearing before the Appropriations committees every year and warning of coming catastrophes tied to a rotating cast of enemies — first anarchists, then communists, then fascists, then 1930s-era gangsters, then beatniks and drug users, then anti-war protesters.[1]
Kiriakou says the CIA saw what Hoover was doing and adopted the same playbook, telling Appropriations committees simply “communism, communism” until 2001 and “terrorism” ever since — needing no further explanation to secure what he calls monstrous budget increases, especially after 9/11.[2]