By Cliff Montgomery – May 8th, 2011
The American intelligence community is preparing a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) which will discuss the security weaknesses brought on by the steady decline in U.S. manufacturing capability, according to little- discussed news reports published earlier this year.
“Last month Forbes reported that the continued erosion of the U.S. manufacturing base has gotten so serious that the Director of National Intelligence has begun preparation of a National Intelligence Estimate…to assess the security implications of the decline of American manufacturing,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in March.
Rep. Schakowsky sits on the House Intelligence Committee, and was citing February news reports on the pending NIE. The articles were published by Forbes and Manufacturing & Technology News.
“Our growing reliance on imports and lack of industrial infrastructure has become a national security concern,” added Rep. Schakowsky.
Indeed, Forbes stated that the very creation of an NIE on this matter “suggests that America’s industrial decline is approaching the status of a crisis.”
NIEs constitute the “most authoritative written judgments concerning national security issues,” declares the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which serves the Director for National Intelligence.
“They contain the coordinated judgments of the Intelligence Community regarding the likely course of future events,” adds the NIC. National Intelligence Estimates “have been considered to be the best analysis of specific issues of national importance or of national crisis situations that could be brought to bear by the Director of Central Intelligence, with the concurrence of the other intelligence organizations of the United States Government.”
In March, Rep. Schakowsky further told Inside U.S. Trade that she would like to see a “declassified portion” of the upcoming NIE released to the public.
“With 14 million Americans out of a job we should not be considering [trade deals and other actions] that will ship additional jobs overseas,” declared Rep. Schakowsky.
“Instead, we need to work to rebuild the American manufacturing sector, creating jobs at home. And instead of approving [such things as ‘free trade agreements’] that will offshore more American jobs, we need to establish a trade policy that benefits American workers and the entire American economy,” she added.
So not only is this country’s 30-year-experiment with ‘casino capitalism’–which is based more on Wall Street gambles than Main Street investment–disastrous for our economy. It’s downright un-American as well.
