US spends $55 billion on CIA, other intel agencies

The U.S. Congress allocated a total of $55 billion to the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies for use in classified operations in 2011, Huffingtonpost.com has reported.

The director of the National Intelligence Program (NIP), James Clappers, whose office was created after the Sept. 11 attacks to oversee 16 separate intelligence agencies, made the announcement Friday.

"Any and all subsidiary information concerning the NIP budget, whether the information concerns particular intelligence agencies or particular intelligence programs, will not be disclosed," Clapper said. “Such disclosures could harm national security."

Congress had allocated $53 billion in 2010 to secret intelligence operations, which was a steep rise from 2009, when intelligence agencies received $50 billion.

The Barack Obama administration has requested another $55 billion for civilian intelligence in the 2012 budget, the report said.

In 2010, when the U.S. government released spending numbers for the first time, civilian and military intelligence costs were reported to total $80 billion.