Bush Wants to Bolster CIA but Doesn't Offer Specifics He seeks a 50% increase in spies and analysts. No time frame or funding is set. Many are skeptical. By Greg Miller and Peter Wallsten Times Staff Writers November 24, 2004 WASHINGTON — President Bush has ordered what may be a major expansion of the CIA, calling for the beleaguered agency to add thousands of analysts and spies as part of an ongoing buildup in the war on terrorism, according to a White House memorandum released Tuesday. But the directive set no timetable for the changes and offered no indication that the White House intended to ask Congress for the massive funding increase such a plan would require. The proposal was outlined in a memorandum delivered to CIA Director Porter J. Goss last week. Bush instructed the intelligence chief to increase the number of analysts and spies at the CIA by 50%. The figure stunned current and former intelligence officials, several of whom said the CIA had not charted such an aggressive course of growth since its inception after World War II. The CIA is thought to have an annual budget of about $5 billion and employ more than 17,000 people, although the figures are classified. Sources said the agency's clandestine service employed several thousand people, and that its analytic branch — known as the directorate of intelligence — was even larger. The Bush memo said the increases were to take place "as soon as feasible," and would be "subject to the availability of appropriations." Bush gave the agency 90 days to develop a budget and a plan.