Pentagon wants new spying powers in US
Pentagon says it won't spy on 'innocent' Americans, but critics say past
record shows this is false.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1011/dailyUpdate.html
Claiming it needs greater latitude for the war on terror, the US Senate
Intelligence Committee has approved a request from the Pentagon for the
right to "covertly" gather intelligence on US citizens in order to determine
whether they can recruit them as informants, without telling them that they
are doing so on behalf of the US government. Reuters reported Friday that
the Pentagon said the measure, which is aimed at the Muslim community in the
US, could help them fight insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We believe there are people in the United States who have information
of value to us," said Jim Schmidli, deputy general counsel for operations at
the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency. "That information is within
different ethnic communities in this country -- recent additions to our
population from distressed areas of the world, primarily the Middle East."
But civil libertarians and leaders of the Muslim community charge, however,
that the Pentagon is using the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to reclaim
domestic spying powers that Congress had taken away from it after those
powers were abused to spy on Americans during the Vietnam era.
The intelligence committee has backed the request as part of the 2006
intelligence spending authorization bill. The full Senate will take up the
bill later this month. The Pentagon's request was not included in the House
version of the bill, which was passed in June. The bill will now go to the
Senate Armed Services Committee.
Newsweek reported recently that this is not the first time the Pentagon has
asked for these powers.
The provision was included in last year¹s version of the same bill, but
was knocked out after its details were reported by Newsweek and critics
charged it could lead to ³spying² on US citizens. But late last month, with
no public hearings or debate, a similar amendment was put back into the same
authorization billan annual measure governing US intelligence agenciesat
the request of the Pentagon. A copy of the 104-page committee bill, which
has yet to be voted on by the full Senate, did not become public until last
week.
Newsweek also reported that the committee included two other controversial
amendments in the spending bill: one that would allow intelligence agencies
greater access to databases on US citizens, and one that would grant the
Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency the right not to disclose
"operational files" under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Los Angeles Times reports that supporters of the bill say it gives
Pentagon intelligence officers the same authority that the CIA has to
approach Americans abroad. The CIA cannot spy on US citizens, but its agents
"routinely approach American business executives and overseas travelers to
provide information on foreign targets."
The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Pentagon defended its request
for the new powers last week, saying that as the Pentagon expands its role
in counterterrorism, it needs more flexibility.
"This is not about spying on Americans," [DIA general counsel George
Peirce] said in an interview in which he defended legislative language
approved last week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ..."We are
not asking for the moon," Peirce said. "We only want to assess their
suitability as a source, person to person" and at the same time "protect the
ID and safety of our officers." The CIA and the FBI already have such
authority, he added, and the [Defense Intelligence Agency] needs it "to
develop critical leads" because "there is more than enough work for all of
us to do."
In a separate article, the Post reports that the idea has not been well
received in the US Muslim community, or by other critics of the new power.
"This has a back-alley, dead-of-night feel to it that I don't think
would be received well by the Muslim community," said Ibrahim Cooper,
spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Lisa Graves of the American Civil Liberties Union scoffed at a defense
official's assertion that the proposed change would not allow for carte
blanche Pentagon spying inside the United States. "That's some spin," Graves
said. "The change would allow them to gather information on Americans
surreptitiously. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a
duck."
In late September, The New York Times reported that Republican members of
Congress were expressing concerns that the Pentagon "may be carrying out new
intelligence activities through programs intended to escape oversight from
Congress and the new director of national intelligence," John D. Negroponte.
³We see indications that the [Pentagon] is trying to create parallel
functions to what is going on in intelligence, but is calling it something
else,² Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R) of Michigan and chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, said in an interview.
Mr. Hoekstra said he believed the activities were designed to "obscure" the
Pentagon's intelligence activities in order to keep them out of Mr.
Negroponte's jurisdiction.
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