Following in the footsteps of a number of recent legislative proposals, officials proposed an act last week that would expand a key Defense Department program to gather domestic national security intelligence.
The proposal would broaden the scope of the Pentagon agency Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA. The agency, which now manages security within the military, would be given the authority to investigate crimes of national security within the United States including espionage, sabotage and treason.
Few details are known about the CIFA, which was created three years to help coordinate internal pentagon security efforts. Neither its staff size nor its budget is available to the public.
The new initiative is the product of a presidential commission on intelligence, which was chaired by retired Appellate Court Judge Laurence Silberman and former Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va.
There have thus far been no hearings in the House or Senate regarding the initiative, which critics say is necessary to ensure the full details of the proposed program expansion are fully understood before it goes for a vote.
“We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in an interview with the Washington Post. “This is a huge leap without even a (congressional) hearing.”
Also being pushed by the Pentagon is legislation creating an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, which would allow the FBI to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, so long as it is deemed essential for homeland security.
Like the CIFA proposal, the privacy act exception has raised eyebrows in Washington for the lack of congressional debate surrounding the subject. No hearings have yet been held to discuss the exception in either the House or Senate, and none are planned for in the near future.
The proposals drew immediate criticism from civil liberties advocacy groups and some members of Congress. Changes have since been made at the suggestion of Wyden, who insisted that the Pentagon “strike a much fairer balance by protecting critical rights for our country’s citizens and advancing intelligence operations to meet our security needs.”
For any data sharing to occur, the new provisions would require the approval of the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte. Moreover, the Pentagon would have to issue reports to Congress on the project as it develops.
The Pentagon refuted critics of the two initiatives, pointing out that in the post-Sept. 11 world, the intelligence community needs to be taking every step possible to ensure that America’s homeland remains safe.
“In the age of terrorism, the U.S. military and its facilities are targets, and we have to be prepared within our authorities to defend them before something happens,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Conway told the Washington Post.
The two security proposals come on the heels of other federal initiatives to increase domestic surveillance. Last month, the Federal Communications Commission ordered that all colleges and universities rewire their intranet systems so that they could be monitored by government agencies.
