Military and CIA Expand Surveillance of Americans
January 13th, 2007Is Counterintelligence Field Activity (cifa.mil) tasked with maintaining the master shit list? Compartmentalization, and hiding the budget for the activity, would probably be easier for the military than it would be for any of the civilian agencies.
Interestingly, cifa.mil is one of the few military domains that hasn’t blocked access to Cryptogon. NSA, NGA, DARPA and the White House Military Office still check in on occasion. But Cryptogon is off limits for the average enlisted person… Hmm, I wonder why… * sigh *
Via: New York Times:
The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.
The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security letters to gain access to financial records from American companies, though it has done so only rarely, intelligence officials say.
Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions receiving the letters usually have turned over documents voluntarily, allowing investigators to examine the financial assets and transactions of American military personnel and civilians, officials say.
The F.B.I., the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national security letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, provoking criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who see them as unjustified intrusions into Americans’ private lives.
But it was not previously known, even to some senior counterterrorism officials, that the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency have been using their own “noncompulsory†versions of the letters.
…
In the next year, they plan to incorporate the records into a database at the Counterintelligence Field Activity office at the Pentagon to track possible threats against the military, Pentagon officials said. Like others interviewed, they would speak only on the condition of anonymity.
Have you ever thought about setting up a “ghost” site? A “ghost” site would have the same content as Cryptogon, but would have a pure news type name. Most filters let those through when they won’t the regular site. The UrbanSurvival guy did that, and his ghost site is Independence Journal.