November 27, 2005

Ever feel like you're being...watched?

And that you might be paying for it?

From Jesus' General, the second report that he has been visited by CIFA (Counterintelligence Field Activity). And no, don't try to use the address he captured from his sitemeter. It doesn't work. The first time the General posted about this was last year, and it turns out, he wasn't the only one being monitored. From The American Street:

My blog, Jesus’ General, and at least one other liberal-oriented blog, Call of Cthulhu, are being monitored by the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), a domestic intelligence organization formed following the Sept. 11 attacks. This monitoring appears to be ongoing, because Cthulhu alerted me to it last spring when his logs recorded a visitor from CIFA who had been referred from a link at Jesus’ General. Today, I noticed another entry for CIFA.MIL in my log (see the screen cap at right)–I use a free logging service which only captures the last 100 viewers, so I’ve had a hard time documenting it until now.

Democratic Veteran asks:

OK, wait a fucking minute here...this is the US of A, right? We are supposed to have civilian oversight of military activities unless I misunderstood 9th grade civics. So now the 1600 Crew has succeeded in bringing us one step closer to Grampaw Prescott's carefully supported, chosen government, Nazi Germany. We have laws like Posse Comitatus for a reason, and here we're getting a circumvention by the military being it's own self-propelled judge, jury and executioner against American Citizens. Fuck that.

Democratic Veteran links to WaPo article from the Sunday edition.

The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created three years ago. The proposal, made by a presidential commission, would transform CIFA from an office that coordinates Pentagon security efforts -- including protecting military facilities from attack -- to one that also has authority to investigate crimes within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic espionage.

The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.

Riiiiiight. Because we all know that instead of finding snarky satire about non-homoerotic (really!!!) wrestling in the military, what CIFA will really find at Jesus' General are those pesky invisible WMDs.

The proposals, and other Pentagon steps aimed at improving its ability to analyze counterterrorism intelligence collected inside the United States, have drawn complaints from civil liberties advocates and a few members of Congress, who say the Defense Department's push into domestic collection is proceeding with little scrutiny by the Congress or the public.

"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview.

Wyden has since persuaded lawmakers to change the legislation, attached to the fiscal 2006 intelligence authorization bill, to address some of his concerns, but he still believes hearings should be held. Among the changes was the elimination of a provision to let Defense Intelligence Agency officers hide the fact that they work for the government when they approach people who are possible sources of intelligence in the United States.

Modifications also were made in the provision allowing the FBI to share information with the Pentagon and CIA, requiring the approval of the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, for that to occur, and requiring the Pentagon to make reports to Congress on the subject. Wyden said the legislation "now strikes a much fairer balance by protecting critical rights for our country's citizens and advancing intelligence operations to meet our security needs."

And we know Negroponte didn't learn anything from his time in the other Americas.

On the other hand, I might be suspicious. Oh wait, it's not just me.

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the data-sharing amendment would still give the Pentagon much greater access to the FBI's massive collection of data, including information on citizens not connected to terrorism or espionage.

The measure, she said, "removes one of the few existing privacy protections against the creation of secret dossiers on Americans by government intelligence agencies." She said the Pentagon's "intelligence agencies are quietly expanding their domestic presence without any public debate."

Again, from the 2004 American Street post:

Military.com adds a little more to the description:

Quietly created post-September 11, CIFA has a broad charter to provide counterintelligence and security support to the Defense Department around the world and within the United States.

“Worldwide, more than 400 civilian and military employees work for CIFA with the ultimate goal of detecting and neutralizing the many different forms of espionage regularly conducted against the United States by terrorists, foreign intelligence services and other covert and clandestine groups,” according to the Defense Security Service.

“The threats posed by these adversaries include actions to kill or harm U.S. citizens; to steal critical information or assets (military or civilian); or destroy critical infrastructures.”

Are Cthulhu and I suspected of being “terrorists” or members of “foreign intelligence services and other covert and clandestine groups?” If not, why are we being monitored by CIFA? Is it because we are opposed to the Bush regime?

The funny thing about this is that CIFA could hide their IP address if they chose to do so, but they don’t. Are they just too stupid to do it, or are they brazenly attempting to intimidate us? If it’s the latter, they’ve failed in my case. In any event, it’s beginning to look like COINTELPRO may be making a comeback.

Are you being monitored as well? You may want to check your own logs.

Maybe you're thinking, "I haven't done anything wrong! I've got nothing to worry about. Sure, I posted a nasty comment about W and the pretzel of infamy one afternoon when I was low on blood sugar, but they can't hold that against me! It's not like I'm one of those nasty liberals or anything!"

As I've said before, I have a little bit of familiarity with authoritarianism. Places where people look funny when you ask them questions they really shouldn't answer, and then they tell you what a triumph the revolution was for the people. Where people reflect fondly on the good things about military rule, like cleaner streets (because the homeless have been rounded up) and less freedom of the press (less pornography at the newsstands) and greater public safety (because soldiers stood at the crosswalks with automatic weapons). These are the things that make me rabidly pro-liberty, pro-United States Constitution, and pro-Sunshine law. Authoritarian countries are fun - in some twisted way - to study, but also scary as shit. Why? Because they show you how easy it is for normal people, well-intentioned people, even theoretically democratic people, to support authoritarianism when mobilized by fear. Fear of mugging. Fear of filth. Fear of loose morals. Fear of terrorism.

Perhaps the prime illustration of the Pentagon's intelligence growth is CIFA, which remains one of its least publicized intelligence agencies. Neither the size of its staff, said to be more than 1,000, nor its budget is public, said Conway, the Pentagon spokesman. The CIFA brochure says the agency's mission is to "transform" the way counterintelligence is done "fully utilizing 21st century tools and resources."

One CIFA activity, threat assessments, involves using "leading edge information technologies and data harvesting," according to a February 2004 Pentagon budget document. This involves "exploiting commercial data" with the help of outside contractors including White Oak Technologies Inc. of Silver Spring, and MZM Inc., a Washington-based research organization, according to the Pentagon document.

For CIFA, counterintelligence involves not just collecting data but also "conducting activities to protect DoD and the nation against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, assassinations, and terrorist activities," its brochure states.

CIFA's abilities would increase considerably under the proposal being reviewed by the White House, which was made by a presidential commission on intelligence chaired by retired appellate court judge Laurence H. Silberman and former senator Charles S. Robb (D-Va.). The commission urged that CIFA be given authority to carry out domestic criminal investigations and clandestine operations against potential threats inside the United States.

Did you catch that part I emphasized? "Investigations and clandestine operations against potential threats inside the United States." Yeah. So, are they investigating the General as a potential threat? Why? And if they decided to engage in "clandestine operations" what would that look like? Collection of incriminating evidence, and threats to expose the secrets? A full scale takedown? A vanishing blog? Yeah yeah, tell me to take off the tinfoil hat, I know. Weaker willed souls that the General might have stopped at the first sighting of CIFA in the sitemeter.

And what about our fair legislature, ever vigilant against breaches of civilian government control of the military, and overreaching by the executive branch? Baltar reminded us of what a good job Congress is doing in holding up their side of the checks and balances equation.

So, what is a blogger to do, especially when discovering the "fingerprints" of surveillance?

As was noted at American Street in a July 2004 article Monitoring Dissent may be a key component of CIFA operations. Since I firmly believe that dissent is not only patriotic, but critical to the existence of a free democracy, it troubles me greatly to have dissenting voices lumped with "terrorists" and "threats to the country." I'm sorry, but there is something very un-American in all of this - not to mention who knows how many violations of laws and rights.

One might wonder why I would bring all of this to your attention. Well, this is not the first time that "fingerprints" from odd places have ended up on this site. I personally see it as an intimidation tactic - an effort to silence dissenting voices. A simple message that says "We are watching you." I made a decision to use such events as a "teachable moment." I get to learn and share information about interesting government agencies and activities.

It is somewhat troubling to be visited by various intelligence, counterintelligence, homeland security, military, and justice organizations (to name a few areas). It seems to indicate that I may be under suspicion for something. However, if I am an "adversary" of anything, it is of fascism, totalitarianism, and silencing of critical thinking and critical information. I welcome and attempt to foster an informed dialogue. If that is "subversive," then it shows exactly how far the United States has drifted from its moorings, and just how perilous the current course is.

This reminds me of a story one of my undergrad professors used to tell in the late 80s. See, he was a pro-democracy exile from an authoritarian country in Latin America. Because he taught classes in political science, and did research on political parties and elections, he naturally came under suspicion from the junta. He knew he was being watched, and followed. He eventually made it out (an interesting story in itself) but until he could arrange it, everytime he picked up his phone and heard the telltale click of the wiretap, he knew someone (ahem) was listening in. And everytime he picked up the phone, before he talked to his caller, or before he dialed, he would say "Bom dia, Senhor Censor!" (good day, Mr. Censor). Maybe the General - or all of us, really - should adopt a similar strategy. Tchauzinho, seu Censor! Foi uma maravilha ver-lhe em casa!

Maybe they have a (non-gay) translator over at CIFA to tell them what that means. In the mean time, this should concern all of us.

Posted by binky at November 27, 2005 07:31 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Blogorama | J. Edgar Hoover | The Ever Shrinking Constitution


Comments

Binky,
This sounds a little paranoid. The far more obvious possibility is that CIFA has a few dozen people daily doing searches of the web for key words that would be used by terrorists planning an attack, or rallying support and funding for their organizations. For instance, if I do a search on the bloodless blog for keywords that might be used by terrorists planning an attack, like "chemical weapons attack," then a post called Woodward's Plan of Attack comes up. If I do a search on Google for "chemical weapons attack" and limit my finds to the bloodless domain, I get 19 hits. Now of course this isn't going to catch any terrorists using a secret code, but it might catch terrorists without the sophistication to realize this may give them away, and it might catch terrorists who think there's so many websites, weblogs, etc. using these words that they will remain a needle in a haystack because nobody would bother going through all the thousands of sites and weblogs using these words. As to rallying support for terrorist organizations, CIFA analysts might do a search for web pages with the words "hate bush israel," because hatred of bush and israel characterize most terrorist organizations. A Google search of the bloodless website for "hate bush israel" comes back with 16 hits. A search on the bloodless site itself returns four hits for "hate bush israel." The other obvious possibility is that these blogs have a fan at CIFA who checks in during their break time.

Posted by: Morris at November 27, 2005 10:16 PM | PERMALINK

The other obvious possibility is that these blogs have a fan at CIFA who checks in during their break time.

And use work computers for personal enjoyments?!

Posted by: binky at November 28, 2005 07:21 AM | PERMALINK

You know there was a time not so long ago when conservative who are as true-blue as they come were horrified that the Congress was taking on roles traditionally left to the states. I find it deeply disturbing that these folks who supposedly (and with good reason) have serious qualms about a highly intrusive and powerful central government are now acquiescing to a major domestic role for the military. That's traditionally (and thankfully) something only seen in those nasty authoritarian states Binky mentions. Regardless of the surfing habits of CIFA employees (who should know better, if that is indeed what they are doing) this post shows a clear interest by major government leaders in domestically-oriented military operations - a troubling turn.

Posted by: Armand at November 28, 2005 09:17 AM | PERMALINK

UPDATE: Looks like Hilzoy is paranoid too.

OK, posted the wrong link originally. Fixed now.

Posted by: binky at November 28, 2005 10:07 PM | PERMALINK

Bro,
There is "a clear interest by major government leaders in domestically-oriented military operations." But it's not American military operations that they're interested in, it's terrorist military operations. We tried not being interested in them, leaving them to the FBI, and that didn't work out so well.

Posted by: Morris at November 28, 2005 11:01 PM | PERMALINK

Morris - The FBI is indeed a huge problem. So let's fix (and continually mock and shame Louis Freeh for being the dangerously incompetent man that he is) and let the military do what they are supposed to do. They shouldn't be lacking things to do right now.

Posted by: Armand at November 29, 2005 11:48 AM | PERMALINK

Wow, sometimes I am just inspired. It seems this kind of internet spying paid off after all. Or are you prepared to argue that saving the mounties isn't the noblest cause?
"The investigation began back in 2004, when CSIS was monitoring Internet sites and tracing the paths of Canadians believed to have ties to international terrorist organizations."

Posted by: Morris at June 5, 2006 08:44 PM | PERMALINK
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