"No real investments are going on, " said Brad Michelson, a vice president at Infinity Systems Engineering, a Colorado Springs-based government contractor in engineering, intelligence and information technology.

NPR: US Economy Hamstrung By Washington's Brinksmanship

Mr. Pistole, an FBI veteran who took over TSA in 2010, said that by studying frequent-flier histories as well as conducting background checks, he's confident the U.S. now has the technology and the intelligence information to make less-rigorous, faster screening work.

WSJ: $100 to Fly Through the Airport

Kasuri said Sunday that foreign intelligence had years ago passed on information about Khan giving nuclear technology to other countries -- prompting his removal in 2001 as head of the Khan Research Laboratories, the main nuclear lab named after him.

CNN: CIA 'sparked Pakistan nuke probe'

Gertz quotes John Shaw, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for International Technology Security, who contends - based on information from two reliable European intelligence services - that Russian troops and Iraqi intelligence "almost certainly" removed the missing material from the facility.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

In a press release issued last month about the investment, William Strecker, In-Q-Tel's chief technology officer, said the intelligence community is looking for new ways to secure information given the increasing ubiquity of cloud computing.

FORBES: Magazine Article

"The rise stems from increased investment in information technology, particularly back-office and in fact call centres, " Gareth Price of the Economist Intelligence Unit told the BBC's World Business Report.

BBC: India sees jump in foreign investment