Secret Spy Group Goes Public (and Nobody Cares)

Just 'cause something's secret, doesn't mean it's interesting, that should be the lesson from today's Washington Post article on the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a super-secret trade group of spooks.

The article starts off with this spy-thriller worthy opening:

Enter a nondescript building in Ballston, take the escalator to the second floor, and make a sharp right. There, next to a MyEyeDr. shop, is Room 205, with little to hint that it's a gathering place for spies and their business associates. There is, though, a locked door: You have to be buzzed in to enter the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.

On first read, it seems like INSA is an organization whose tenticles reach the very top of the current administration:

The group, a nonprofit professional association for members of the intelligence community -- including private contractors, academics and members of U.S. spy agencies -- is largely unknown. That's quite a feat, because its chairman, retired Navy Vice Adm. John M. McConnell, the former head of the National Security Agency, left recently to be sworn in as director of national intelligence, the president's top intelligence adviser. (A new chairman for the professional association is expected to be selected soon.)

So why has this group never been profiled in the media before? Well, possibly because no one cared.

The article at least intrigued me enough to do a bit of my own research. Afer all, they may be private sector spooks, but even spook trade groups gotta file a Form 990 to the IRS, which is open for public review. The 990 includes the organization's board members and their salaries, and frankly, INSA looks, well, a lot like any other middling-size industry group.

They had about $1.5 million in revenue for 2004 (the most recent year for which data is available), which isn't even enough to plot a good coup. Their biggest expense for 2004 was for an "awards dinner." Yawn.

Lesson of the day? Even spooks can be boring.