Disestablishmentarianism, CIFA Version
Remember that word? As a kid you probably proudly claimed to have learned its opposite, antidisestablishmentarianism, not long after you learned how to spell M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. You may vaguely remember that the word pertains directly to state sanctioning–or unsanctioning–of religion.
According to Warren Strobel, the Pentagon has decided to use the term "disestablished" to refer to the closure of the CIFA program.
Today comes the news, not unexpected, that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has shuttered–the official euphemism is "disestablished"–the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA.
[snip]
CIFA’s resources and responsibilities are being transferred to the Defense Intelligence Agency , under a new unit called the Defense Counterintelligence (CI) and Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Center.
And on the issue of the Pentagon’s choice to use a word with religious connotations to refer to the reorganization of its domestic spying program, Strobel adds this:
Or, more specifically, will the Defense Department continue to have an expanded role in domestic intelligence-gathering and surveillance?
No clear answer on that question. Today’s Pentagon press release did note: "CIFA’s designation as a law enforcement activity did not transfer to DIA. The new center will have no law enforcement function."
I’m not sure about how the Pentagon distinguishes between its law enforcement religion and its intelligence religion, but I am reminded that when DOD’s IG did a report trying to cover up the TALON debacle, it excused DOD spying on Americans this way:
The TALON reports were generated for law enforcement and force protection purposes. We found no evidence that the U.S. person information for organizations and individuals that were not affiliated with the DoD resulted from an intelligence collection operation. Therefore, the TALON reports were maintained as law enforcement information and were subject to DoD Directive 5200.27, “Acquisition of Information Concerning Persons and Organizations Not Affiliated with the Department of Defense,” January 7, 1980.
DoD Gathering U.S. Person Information for Law Enforcement and Force Protection Purposes. DoD Directive 5200.27 establishes general policy for collecting, processing, storing, and disseminating information on persons not affiliated with DoD. DoD Components are authorized to gather information that is essential for protecting DoD functions and property, personnel security, and operations related to civil disturbance. It specifies that nothing in the directive should be interpreted as prohibiting prompt reporting to law enforcement agencies of any information that might threaten life or property, or violate law, or prohibit keeping a record of such a report. The directive specifically prohibits:
- gathering U.S. person information on organizations or individuals not affiliated with the DoD beyond that which is essential to accomplish assigned DoD missions;
- gathering information on U.S. persons solely because they oppose Government policy;
- covert or deceptive surveillance or penetration of civilian organizations unless specifically authorized; and
- assigning DoD personnel to attend public or private meetings, demonstrations, or other similar activities for the purpose of gathering information.
That is, DOD made it okay to spy on Americans by pretending that it was only spying on Quakers and bloggers because they posed a real threat to DOD facilities–though, at the same time, they at least claimed they weren’t doing things like attending Quaker meetings.
Call me crazy, but I understand all this to suggest that the Pentagon just withdrew state sanction of collecting information on US citizens in the guise of protecting DOD facilities, but continued to sanction the collecting of information on US citizens in the guise of collecting intelligence on them. Perhaps the functional equivalent of disestablishing the Anglican Church in favor of an arch-conservative Evangelical Christian faith; it’s still state sanction of "religion" and it’s not entirely clear which will get you to Heaven more quickly.
Is DOD taking over the FBI’s gathering and storing of domestic information (but not its “policing” role)? If so, then maybe DOD has devised a computer system that’s actually functional, unlike the FBI’s famous (and unfixable) wreck. Maybe Mueller just gave up trying to fix it, and told the (vastly richer) DOD to take over.
But where’s the Intelligence Tsar? Wouldn’t he be the Pope of this particular confession?
I thought we had heard from Mukasey a month or so back that he had decided to tinker with the FBI, to refocus the agency from strictly criminal investigation to the gathering of “actionable intelligence.”
While I understood that that had already been done to a degree after 9/11, I read Mukasey’s statement only shortly after reading the DoJ IG’s report on FBI behaviour at GTMO and other overseas sites, wherein the agents involved sound mostly disciplined and intelligent (in the way of people trained to think ahead to courtrooms) and seem to have been asking a lot of the right questions, ethical, legal, and professional, from very early on — unlike a lot of other people we can all name.
So to me, Mukasey seemed to be saying that the FBI wasn’t broke yet, so he’d fix that. It’s one of the most worrisome things I’ve heard from him.
I should have been more precise, skdadl. I’ve never thought that the FBI, under Mueller, was broken, or that it was breaking the law (in effect, I’m a fan of Mueller’s). But I gather that its record-keeping has always been a problem.
DOD is assuming all manner of strange assignments. I have a friend, for example, who’s working on DNA detection of prostate cancer. Her principle funder is DOD, not NIH.
If DOD’s budget isn’t cut, then it has to do the work of other, less funded, agencies. And my friend, who needs the funding, isn’t about to complain.
I think this is a transformation of incalculable importance. It redefines us, but I have no idea of its magnitude– hell, I can’t even imagine the magnitude of the DOD’s budget–and so I can’t begin to define this “redefinition”.
I’m pretty naïve about specific American agencies, alabama, but it still bothers me that they all want to be doing “intelligence,” all meaning police and military forces that used to be known for much stricter discipline than that.
The problem with actionable intelligence is that anyone may have it. You could, or I could, or a five-year-old could. And guys who think they’re doing intelligence have been known to go after perfectly innocent people just because of where they’ve been, who they’re related to, etc. They also make leaps of logic that investigators thinking ahead to the courtroom wouldn’t (or shouldn’t). We saw that with the Arar investigation here (and we were only tracking one side of that story).
If even our police forces are doing that, then we are in some trouble, I think.
I’m betting that we’re in the company of about 530+ congreasspersons who OUGHT to be more well informed but appear to have chosen not to be. Unfortunately, our function is to pay these idiots to be more well informed…
Maybe they can’t be informed; maybe the spread of the Department can’t be mapped…..
I remember asking a tourist officer in Istanbul for a map of the city some fifteen years ago. He produced a rather small and tidy map, ten or fifteen years old, that covered a small area, but I wanted a map of the whole city–as of New York’s five boroughs. He said it didn’t exist, that the city had grown by an estimated 5 million people (at least) in the previous ten years, and that no one had tried to map this….That was before the days of Mapqwest, etc.
Do we have a “Mapqwest” version of the DoD, showing all its parts and their various functions?
It’s because the G in GWOT now includes inside the US. So spying on Americans is a military function, just like rendition, enhanced interrogation, and indefinite detention of Americans. Law enforcement doesn’t enter into it. Law enforcement actions are subject to litigation and legislation, after all, and we cant have that, can we? Like Chaney said so derisively, “They’ll get lawyers.”
Next question?
EW, that is a really marvellous use of the metaphor. I have to ponder on that, but it is so good.
How many times has CIFA been disestablished? Seems to me I’ve heard this before.
Actually, military spying on Americans in America has a longer history than the Bush era. See for example accounts of the Ervin Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights proceedings in 1970 when it revealed that the U.S. Army was performing domestic investigations on the civilian population.
From WF Pepper “An Act of State” p 205.
According to the Ervin investigation SCLC was infiltrated by MI under this program. Pepper suggests that while Hoover’s FBI had very few Black agents to cover the Civil Rights movement, Military Intelligence had a vastly larger pool of Black agents.
For your convenience, SCLC in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King’s group. Plenty of evidence that Established Power in that era perceived the Civil Rights Movement as a big threat, and MLK in particular. They were especially paranoid regarding King’s March on Poverty.
I can’t figure out what ACSI stands for, but in 1968 the ASCI was Gen. Yarborough. To get some idea of the magnitude of military spying:
Pepper p206.
Some things just don’t seem to change.
ACSI – General William Yarborough, the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI)
The noose around Uncle Sam’s neck is tightening and 99.9% of the world is oblivious to the fact.
Bill of Rights? What Bill of Rights? Spying is an inalienable right of Kings, Pirates, and Thieves.
The military should not be involved in spying on US citizens. That being said, the military has always skirted the boundaries even in the best of times. Heavens knows in these GWOT days what is being done – although people like Marcy are doing their damnest to shine the light of day.
Even though my opinion of the FBI is not very high (I’ve had some run ins with them on government investigations and I really don’t like their strong arm tactics), I would rather have them doing investigations on US citizens than having the military do them.
And please explain how transferring CIFAs resources and responsibilities to DIA (last time I checked they still belonged to DoD) disestablish anything??
The FBI is the new kid on the block (dating from 1920, I think), and the DOD has been around since the 1790’s. Historians may have something to say about this, and its pertinence, if any, to the things going on at the moment.
As for the fragility of the Bill of Rights: was it ever otherwise? Really?
The fact that it was drafted at all, and forced into the Constitution, may be the major miracle of the thing. It can always be violated, but never erased–a forceful, if spectral, call to duty….
Like the ghost of Hamlet’s father.
Actually, DoD was only established in 1947. The Army and the Navy have been around since the country was established, but with very little interaction/coordination between the services (not that there is that much more coordination in today’s world).
Right. I’m thinking of the “Secretary of War”.
Marcy – sorta OT, but what is Ledeen doing these days?
I can’t imagine the [.gov] Members of the Intelligence Community (IC) each hogging personal data collected from surveillance of the public.
I wonder what we’re expected to think IC contractors are whipping into shape.
The issue of IP addresses as personal data should not be left out of discussion of domestic intelligence.
Shuffling bureaucratic homes for controversial programs of questionable legality, but with seemingly secure black budgets, is a sign that the program has the grace and favor of the powerful, and is being protected from the uppity hoi poloi. Just as Admiral Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness monstrosity remains robust and vibrant, albeit under an assumed name and with a foster bureaucratic parent.
Both are beneficiaries of the administration’s witness protection program for illegal programs. Wise guys and whistleblowers never had it so good.
Heh. But it is fairly clear what, and who, is taking us to hell in a handbasket. Let me re-issue an oft reminded theme, no law enforcement/intelligence entity gives up powers once they have them. Like effectively never. They just move the peas on the plate under the mashed potatoes and tell you they ate them.
O.T.: I keep thinking about this Duley quote:
“When he feels he that he has been slighted or has had … especially towards women … he plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killing.”
But the Anthrax letters weren’t primarily addressed to women, were they?
Only Judy Miller’s fake letter…..
Not only that, Duley seems to have only hearsay to support those assertions, no first-hand knowledge. Very very colorful, in fact, downright prejudicial, however no substantiation seems to have turned up yet. Hmmm.
Were are they going to imprison all of their political enemies (the truthtellers) when they declare martial law?
Swift Luck Greens is one of many locations:
http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-…..7403/posts
According to the Rawlins Daily Times:
http://www.wyopress.org/member…..paperID=59
Rag Shoshone coal mine closed Thursday. August 30, 2000.
In 2000 – this was the production rate for the mine:
Tons of Coal Mined in 2000: 1,209,795
Number of Employees in 2000: 67
CYPRUS SHOSHONE COAL CORPORATION
PO BOX 530
HANNA WY 82327
Latitude: 41.92 Longitude: -106.521944
Wikipedia:
Civilian Inmate Labor Program –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C…..or_Program
The Civilian Inmate Labor Program is a program of the United States Army provided by Army Regulation 210-35[1]. The regulation, first drafted in 1997 and went under a “rapid act revision” in January 2005, provides policy for the creation of labor programs and prison camps on Army installations. The labor would be provided by persons under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Prison camps
The regulation also sets forth policy for the creation of prison camps on Army installations. These would be used to keep inmates of the labor programs resident on the installations.
In January 2006, Kellogg, Brown and Root reported that they had received a contract from the Department of Homeland Security to expand ICE DRO facilities “in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.”[3] A February news article comments that the “new programs” mentioned could include the Civilian Inmate Labour Program.[4] ICE has “joint federal facilities” with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.[5]
I can’t help but think one is in the making in my back yard, it was formerly known as Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base. Now it has been turned into a highly guarded trans-national rail hub.
Meanwhile, at the shuttered Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base about 20 miles south of Kansas City in Belton, Mo., Kansas City Southern Railway is joining with CenterPoint Properties of Oak Brook, Ill., to build the $300 million, 1,340-acre CenterPoint-KCS Intermodal Center, featuring a 370-acre mixed transport facility run by the railroad and CenterPoint’s 970-acre industrial park.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, quotes about Secrecy:
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.
Well, the article you cite, has an important error in it. It is no longer located in Belton, Missouri. It was sold to Kansas City, Missouri behind our backs, because they knew that Belton would never sign-off on it. So in order to garner support for it they annexed it to faaaaaar South K.C. and let the K.C. residents vote in favor of it. K.C. residents didn’t have any problem with it because it was so far away from them. Belton isn’t a very big city and doesn’t have much money or clout. We lost.
OT: DHS makes us so much safer. This just up at Slashdot:
You’ll be happy to know that TSA has suspended new registrations for the program.