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Reuters – October 7, 2005
Pentagon seeks American Muslim informants
on insurgencies in Iraq, Afghanistan
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, Oct 7, 2005 (Reuters) - Pentagon officials said on Friday they could fight insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan more effectively if Congress would allow intelligence operatives to hide their identities from potential informants in the U.S. Muslim population.
Civil liberties advocates say the Pentagon is simply using troubles abroad to reacquire domestic espionage powers that Congress revoked in the wake of Vietnam-era abuses.
They warn that any change in the law would erode privacy protections, especially for Muslim American citizens and resident aliens with personal ties to countries at the forefront of the U.S. war on terrorism.
Four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Defense Department is seeking congressional approval for a change in a 1974 privacy law that would allow its intelligence operatives to approach citizens and resident aliens inside the United States without revealing their government credentials.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has backed the Pentagon's request in its fiscal 2006 intelligence spending authorization bill, which could be taken up by the full Senate later this month. . .
Current law prevents defense intelligence from effectively recruiting informants because they must identify themselves to American citizens and resident aliens at the first contact, officials say. The Senate's proposed change, they said, would provide defense officials with the same powers already granted to the FBI.
The proposed change drew a cool reception from an organization that represents an estimated 7 million American Muslims.
"This has a back-alley, dead-of-night feel to it that I don't think would be received well by the Muslim community," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Lisa Graves of the American Civil Liberties Union scoffed at a defense official's assertion that the proposed change would not allow for carte blanche Pentagon spying inside the United States.
"That's some spin," Graves said. "The change would allow them to gather information on Americans surreptitiously. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07276617.htm
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