[IP] more on "new"(?) foreign spying agency? (What was old one doing?!)
Begin forwarded message:
From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 23, 2005 5:43:48 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, Ip Ip <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] "new"(?) foreign spying agency? (What was old one
doing?!)
At 01:45 PM 10/23/2005, Jim Warren wrote:
I thought this was what the CIA was ALREADY supposed to be doing!
...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4340318.stm
US setting up new spying agency
The new NCS director will report to CIA chief Porter Goss
The US has announced the creation of a new intelligence agency led by
the CIA to co-ordinate all American overseas spying activities.
The National Clandestine Service (NCS) will oversee all human
espionage operations - meaning spying by people rather than by
technical means.
From the description, the new service isn't so much a "new spying
agency," as a newly-elevated role for the CIA Directorate of
Operations, i.e., under the NCS rubric, it will both continue to do
what it's been doing, but also have increased oversight of other
agencies' human intelligence (HUMINT) activities. Those other
agencies would include DOD agencies, and the FBI, presumably.
The CIA was never the sole agency responsible for HUMINT, and I
believe (though Jeffrey Richelson's books on intelligence would be a
good place to look for something more authoritative) that there're
going to be issues in deconflicting CIA vs. FBI responsibility for
things like foreign diplomats, CIA vs. military services in
recruiting foreign military personnel, etc.
Two issues of interest to us here would be whether or not this new
NCS provides appropriate means for oversight of *all* HUMINT (e.g.,
if DOD policymakers decide that "the intel doesn't fit the plan," and
hunt for sources, like Achmed Chalabi, that support their views, will
all appropriate parties be informed? All appropriate parties
including Congressional committees...); and how so-called "open
source" intelligence is regarded. Numerous folks (myself included)
believe that the Intelligence Community needs to greatly improve its
awareness and exploitation of "plain old information," both to
augment and obviate clandestine intelligence.
Ross
----
Ross Stapleton-Gray, Ph.D.
Stapleton-Gray & Associates, Inc.
http://www.stapleton-gray.com
http://www.sortingdoor.com
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