Current, Ex-Spy Officials Oppose Agency

I was against this until I saw that the ACLU was also against it!

Current, Ex-Spy Officials Oppose Agency
NewsMax Wires
Saturday, Apr. 17, 2004
WASHINGTON -- While the Sept. 11 commission appears likely to recommend an overhaul of U.S. intelligence agencies, the idea that a separate domestic spy agency be created outside the FBI is meeting strong opposition from current and former officials.
FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Director Louis Freeh, Attorney General John Ashcroft, his predecessor Janet Reno and CIA Director George Tenet all recommended against a new homeland spy agency in testimony before the panel this week.

In a rare alignment, the position of the five on the issue dovetails with that of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU maintains that such an agency could evolve into the ultimate Big Brother, with power to launch covert activities against U.S. citizens, dig into private lives and conduct surveillance without legal cause.

"Even during the most frigid days of the Cold War, we never saw the need to create a secret police force that would work outside the constraints of the Constitution," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.

In testimony before the 9/11 panel, Freeh said: "Americans, I don't think, like secret police."

Yet given the FBI's multiple failures prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, questions remain whether an agency devoted for decades to law enforcement can make intelligence a mission of equal or greater importance.

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, vice chairman of the commission, said it appears Mueller "is moving in the right direction and has made much progress" in building a new intelligence capability at the FBI.

"The key question for us is whether he can succeed with the very difficult mission that he has set out, and we have not come to a judgment with respect to that," said Hamilton, D-Ind.

Edwards Wants New Domestic Agency

Some members of Congress don't believe an FBI transformation is possible. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has been pushing for months for a new Homeland Intelligence Agency that would have no law enforcement duties or powers.

"This is a structural problem," Edwards said. "We have a law enforcement agency trying to do something they are not suited to do, which is domestic intelligence."

The proposal would set up an organization similar to Britain's Security Service, known as MI5, which collects, analyzes and disseminates intelligence aimed at disrupting terrorism, espionage and sabotage directed against Britain. It has no law enforcement powers.

Mueller has been battling hard to squelch the idea on Capitol Hill and in public appearances. In testimony this week, he sketched out a number of initiatives aimed at augmenting the bureau's intelligence work, including the hiring of hundreds of analysts, establishing a separate intelligence division, setting up intelligence groups in all 56 field offices and improving intelligence training for agents.

In addition, Mueller and CIA Director Tenet have been putting together a Terrorist Threat Integration Center to act as a single fusion and dissemination point for the intelligence gathered overseas by the CIA and other agencies and by the FBI at home.

"The FBI's strength always has been, is, and will be in the collection of information," Mueller said. "Our weakness has been in the integration, analysis and dissemination of that information. And we are addressing these weaknesses."

Several members of the Sept. 11 commission have indicated they favor broad recommendations to overhaul the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Former Navy Secretary John Lehman, for instance, said this week, "There is a train coming down the track. There are going to be very real changes made."

One proposal that surfaced months ago was to create a single high-level intelligence position with powers over all the 15 or so U.S. intelligence agencies, including their budgets. The idea has primarily involved the CIA and others involved in overseas intelligence work rather than the FBI, and Tenet said this week that any overhaul should keep that separation intact.

"We operate with a certain degree of impunity with regard to other countries' laws," Tenet said of the CIA. "Since we're operating clandestinely and collecting clandestinely, and we're not going to a judge. ... It's a different context for us."

President Bush has said he's open to changes in the intelligence structure. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Friday that Bush has made no decision about the possible overhaul and will await the commission's recommendations before acting.

"Certainly, we never rule out anything when it comes to taking steps to protect the American people," McClellan said.

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

We may need new or different leadership but we definately do not need another government bureaucracy to pass the buck to.
Government is so big now we cant find who is responsible for a damn thing. If we tried to we could not live long enough for the full circle to come around.
We do not need more government, we need better and more accountable government.

FBI stayed in Justice and ATF stayed in Treasury when Homeland Security was created. I knew they weren't serious.

The American public seems to want a strident military force. What better way to please them than to establish a Gestapo or KGB on the domestic front?

Lawyers full-employment-opportunity league will always find fault. If no one will sue, using their own funds, then much as the lawyers-full-employment-league hate to spend a little of their tax-free organization's money, they will do it themselves. After all, no lawyer ought to be without fees, and if there is nothing to sue over, make something up. Judges love it. Keeps them occupied, and provides opportunites for the judicial mischief they have come to know and love.

The OSS was replaced by the CIA. Time to eliminate agencies and replace them with new ones, not add more. Americans want smaller government, don't they?

ATF is now in Justice

When is the last time you heard of a lawyer suing another lawyer or for that matter when is the last time a lawyer has been sued by anyone over failing to represent them properly and remember thousands have been released from jail because of ineffective representation.
Lawyers are like reporters, they sock it to everyone else with a free hand to do as they please without any real repercussions. Both of these groups need to be scrutinized real close to show them what they do to others and I will bet the world would be surprised at what came out from under the rock in which they hide.

outside the constraints of the US Constitution? Where's Remo Williams when ya need him?