[IP] Pentagon wants new spying powers in US
_______________ Forward Header _______________
Subject: Pentagon wants new spying powers in US
Author: Kurt Albershardt <kurt@xxxxxx>
Date: 16th October 2005 9:44:26 am
<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.
<snip>
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/