And so we should!! This just provides better interaction among the INTEL community and the law enforcement community which does not historically know how to deal with one another. This is a very positive step to ensure that Homeland Security has access to all the databases it needs.
FM
CIA role inside the USA greater
USA TODAY
Monday, November 08, 2004
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
The CIA has assigned dozens of case officers and analysts to work with FBI
agents throughout the USA in the most extensive deployment of intelligence
officers on domestic soil in the spy agency's history.
Officials at both agencies say the deployment, which pairs CIA officers with
FBI agents in the bureau's offices to assist with terror-related
investigations, also represents the CIA's broadest association with federal
law enforcement since the CIA was created after World War II.
The CIA was created to gather foreign intelligence and is prohibited by law
from participating in intelligence-gathering operations against U.S.
citizens. It also has no law-enforcement powers. Intelligence and FBI
officials say that the CIA officers are not involved in criminal
investigations.
Instead, according to four intelligence and FBI officials familiar with the
relationship, the CIA officers are providing the FBI with instant access to
international databases to determine whether domestic terror suspects might
have contacts with terror organizations abroad.
In Baltimore, FBI spokesman Barry Maddox says the CIA's presence in the
Baltimore field office provides "an instant pipeline" to the spy agency's
databases and an immediate contact point for the relay of important
information.
In addition, CIA analysts have conducted briefings for local police to help
identify potential terrorist threats. Those briefings had been reported by
The New York Times earlier this year.
The new relationship was prompted by demands from Congress that the agencies
work more closely after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The officials in both agencies, who asked not to be identified because of
their agencies' policies, won't say exactly how many CIA officers and
analysts are deployed. But in nearly every instance, they work with the
nation's network of 100 Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
The task forces, whose number increased dramatically from about 34 prior to
the Sept. 11 attacks, draw members from federal, state and local law
enforcement agencies. The units were expanded quickly in an attempt at
joining disparate police agencies against potential domestic terror threats.
Despite assurances that the CIA is not overstepping its bounds, the close
working relationship makes some civil libertarians wary.
"The location of these CIA officers definitely gives me pause," says Ann
Beeson, associate legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union . "We
have been very concerned about the growing surveillance power of the
government through these task forces. We still know very little about these
task forces. It would be very troubling if the CIA were to be involved in a
broader surveillance operation."
Before Sept. 11, CIA officers and FBI agents had worked together on
intelligence-related investigations, mostly as part of limited exchange
agreements between both agencies' headquarters and in key FBI
counterterrorism offices, including New York.
"This kind of relationship has been encouraged for years," says Michael
O'Neil, a former CIA general counsel. "If we're going to accept that
terrorism can touch the U.S., then you've got to have the best exchange of
information among police services."