Pentagon “Closing” CIFA

You all remember CIFA, don’t you? It’s the Pentagon’s very own counter-intelligence organization, one with the added benefit that, like all things Pentagon, it can serve as the source of contracting bounty for corrupt Republican cronies (up to and including Stephen Cambone, who created the damn organization). CIFA has spied on, among other things, the Quakers and Jesus’ General. You know, because peaceniks and DFH satirical bloggers are apparently the biggest threat to our military…

I’ve long suspected that CIFA was a clever plot, on the part of the Republicans, to outsource their Nixonian domestic spying, so as to hide it from oversight better than Nixon managed to. That suspicion only hardened when I learned that the CIFA database (including its records on the Quakers and Jesus’ General) went “poof” one day, remarkably enough at the same time as Carol Lam was closing in on the Mitch Wade subcontractor associated with CIFA, MZM (the same organization that had a contract with OVP to do something with emails).

It’s a real treasure trove of civil liberties atrocities, CIFA is.

Well, as luck would have it, on the very same day that the Pentagon released documents to the ACLU revealing that CIFA had abused National Security Letters to (among other things) collect information on a few Pentagon employees, the Pentagon has announced it is shutting down CIFA.

The Pentagon is expected to shut a controversial intelligence office that has drawn fire from lawmakers and civil liberties groups who charge that it was part of an effort by the Defense Department to expand into domestic spying.

[snip]

The intelligence unit, called the Counterintelligence Field Activity office, was created by Mr. Rumsfeld after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as part of an effort to counter the operations of foreign intelligence services and terror groups inside the United States and abroad.

Yet the office, whose size and budget is classified, came under fierce criticism in 2005 after it was disclosed that it was managing a database that included information about antiwar protests planned at churches, schools and Quaker meeting halls.

The Pentagon’s senior intelligence official, James R. Clapper, has recommended to Mr. Gates that the counterintelligence field office be dismantled and that some of its operations be placed under the authority of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the officials said.

The NYT presents advocates saying the closure is a great thing and others suggesting this is just a cover-up–that the domestic spying will get buried deep in the Pentgon where we’ll have to ferret it out again. Me, I’m in the latter category.

But since the NSL documents turned over to ACLU are apparently significant enough to cause the Pentgon to take this face-saving gesture (or at least say they’re going to make the gesture), I suspect those documents are rather interesting, don’t you?

I’m headed to bed, so those documents are going to have to wait until tomorrow. But for those who can’t wait, here’s a snippet of what the ACLU has found so far:

The Defense Department documents uncovered today contain numerous revelations of potential abuses of the NSL power and suggest a serious lack of oversight of the military’s use of NSLs:

  • Documents show the Defense Department may be flouting the law and, by asking the FBI to issue the NSLs on their behalf, accessing documents it is not entitled to receive. (See document 72)
  • A newly unredacted copy of the results and recommendations of an internal program review prompted after the New York Times reported potential abuses of the military’s NSL power shows that:
    • The Navy’s use of NSLs to demand domestic records has increased significantly since September 11; (See document 68)
    • Contrary to prior claims by the military, its NSL use is not limited to investigating only DoD employees; (See document 72)
    • The Defense Department has issued NSLs without providing any real training or guidance; (See documents 56, 57, & 72)
    • The Defense Department does not keep track of how many NSLs the military issues or what information is obtained through these orders. (See documents 56, 57, & 72)

I don’t know how I’ll occupy my time until I find where they’re going to hide CIFA.

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20 replies
  1. MadDog says:

    I was reading the ACLU stuff on the DoD’s use of NSLs via CIFA earlier this evening.

    FWIW, most of the now-released info is redacted so you can’t identify who the NSLs were about nor who got served with them.

    At a high level, even though redacted, it is clear that the DoD was extremely agressive in NSL usage. In particular, the released documents show that NCIS (the Naval Criminal Investigative Service) was leading the pack for issuing NSLs.

    • emptywheel says:

      I’m particularly interested in whether they used NSLs to get oppo research on people they considered uncooperative in the GWOT. You know, people like Morris Davis or even the JAGs (going back to our previous discussion). You think they used NSLs on John Yee?

      • bmaz says:

        Yes. Probably the spokes outward from him too.

        The Defense Department does not keep track of how many NSLs the military issues or what information is obtained through these orders. (See documents 56, 57, & 72)

        WTF??? You have got to be kidding me.

        • emptywheel says:

          Well, the FBI didn’t either. So the DOD has good company. Hopefully LHP will wander along this way sometime tomorrow–she’s got doozies of things to say on NSLs.

          • bmaz says:

            Wish I did; never been able to definitively catch them using them on a client. Nasty devices though; and it goes back to the secret law concept. If something like that is to be used, it HAS to be strictly limited, regulated and supervised. But, as you say, they are not and the fruits appear in the darndest places. Go figure.

  2. Rayne says:

    Oh, the memories this brings back.

    ”The office has clearly been so damaged that it is pretty clear to me that it could not function effectively,” Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters. ”So it is being closed down.” [c. 21-FEB-2002]

    And this one:

    “And then there was the office of strategic influence. […] I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing fine I’ll give you the corpse. There’s the name. You can have the name, but I’m gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have.” [c. 18-NOV-2002]

    CIFA will probably die a nice, slow death as it reincarnates, just like OSI. Only thing different is that we don’t have Rummy to kick around.

  3. klynn says:

    EW,

    I’ll have to share sometime the stories about a number of my friends who are Friends and what they went through because of CIFA…AMAZING stuff.

    A more humorous story…One group of Quakers in Seattle during one meeting, finally walked out to the car with CIFA agents, invited them into the meeting, handed the agents all their addresses and information and said, “There, you have everything you need. Please come to our weekly meetings. We would love for you to come to a point of learning and appreciating our beliefs “

    The two guys realized they were violating their rights and the citizens were doing nothing to provoke.

    The agents stopped their activities…I heard they resigned as well…

      • klynn says:

        I would like to check with my friends before posting anything about their experiences in Florida…

        For a few, yes it is “went” because a few of my friends have since died. So, I used past tense due to my personal context of loss.

  4. klynn says:

    I just want to know, “WTH is going on?” This is quite a bit of shister hitting the fan in short order. Bush out of the country. Cheney, on the road…

    There has to be ANOTHER shoe to drop after reading your last two threads EW.

  5. lilysmom says:

    Jesus God, I hate these people. The rules are made only for Democrats and the “little” people.

  6. rkilowatt says:

    Star Chamber -a royal English court or tribunal abolished in 1641, notorious for its secrt sessions without jury, and for its harsh and arbitrary judgements and for its use of torture to force confessions.[Webster’s New World dictionary.]

    Have not seen mentioned here the awesome parallels.

    • klynn says:

      Didn’t the Bushies trace their ancestry to King Henry the III? I remember some comment once about being “cousins” to Queen Elizabeth?

  7. bobschacht says:

    The evil monster that John Poindexter created is like the mythical Hydra- chop off a head, and two more appear somewhere else. Power-hungry people are fascinated by it and cannot let it go. All in the name of protecting us from terrorists, of course.

    How can this monstrosity be contained? Can’t we box it up in a locked trunk and throw it into a volcano? We’ve got an active volcano here in Hawaii I can volunteer for this purpose.

    Bob in HI

  8. alank says:

    The NYT presents advocates saying the closure is a great thing and others suggesting this is just a cover-up–that the domestic spying will get buried deep in the Pentgon where we’ll have to ferret it out again.

    Teh politicization of the Pentagon probably puts the mockers on ferreting out anythin. There’s no disinterested party there to perform oversight. Congressional oversight is a lark.

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