Pentagon expands domestic US spying

[FWiedner]

Pentagon expands domestic US spying

The US Defense Department is expanding domestic intelligence collection in ways that could allow it so circumvent barriers to military spying on US citizens, according to a US newspaper report.

Formerly focused on protecting its US bases and military operations,     Pentagon intelligence collection inside the United States has already expanded to cover broader terrorist threats to the country, the Washington Post said.

However, proposed moves to further expand the military's domestic intelligence activities in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, have sparked worries among politicians and civil liberties advocates that such activities could go out of control, the newspaper said.

"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a (congressional) hearing," Senator Ron Wyden told the daily.

According to the Post, the White House is now considering expanding a secret Pentagon security agency into one which could investigate a range of domestic crimes, for which the government has used the FBI in the past.

The little-known Counterintelligence Field Activity has a secret budget but is believed to already have 1,000 people on its staff, the paper said.

A recent high-level presidential commission "urged that CIFA be given authority to carry out domestic criminal investigations and clandestine operations against potential threats inside the United States," the Post said.

CIFA's expansion would build on post-9/11 efforts to break down data-sharing barriers between the domestic intelligence operations of the FBI and its international counterpart, the     CIA.

Lack of information-sharing by the FBI, CIA, and the Pentagon was a factor in the success of the suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda operatives on New York and Washington in 2001.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051127/pl_afp/usmilitaryintelligence_051127212710;_ylt=AqBg1kfnDq0hD6s663fI116s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

*FW Note:

...authority to carry out domestic criminal investigations and clandestine operations against potential threats inside the United States.

No requirement that there be an actual threat, just a potential threat.

Ain't gonna be long now...

 :shock:

[Dogshooter]

To be honest, I have no problem with increased "spying" on "citizens". I don't believe that any intelligence gathering organization would waste it's time "spying" on the average citizen. I think they would have a reason to start taking a second look at anyone. We are in a much more dangerous world and if we just wait for things to happen, we may all be looking at trying to survive a nuclear winter. If the liberal minority has it's way, we will be rendered helpless and at the mercy of radical muslim's hatred for ALL westerners. Thank God we have Bush instead of Carey and God have mercy on us if the left ever gets majority status again.