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[infowar.de] NSA / CIA / Homeland Defense
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Etwas mehr über die Studie von Joan Dempsey (CIA) und Brent Scowcroft
für die Änderungen in der CIP-Struktur durch Bush. Hier geht es v.a. um
die Rolle der CIA und die Frage, wo der Übergang von Cybercrime zu einem
Problem nationaler Sicherheit ist. Ausserdem um das inzwischen fast
"Sorgenkind" zu nennende Dauerproblem NSA.
RB
Monday July 30 2:33 PM ET
CIA Role May Grow in Preventing Terror Attacks
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. intelligence review is exploring possible
new roles for the CIA and other spy agencies in the domestic arena to
protect the United States from terrorist attack, a senior intelligence
official said.
U.S. intelligence agencies operate overseas and are generally prohibited
from having a hand in domestic affairs to ensure a taboo against spying
on Americans is not broken. It is not clear yet what new role they might
take on.
``We know that we're going to increasingly be a target in this country
and we also know that intelligence is going to have a role to play in
trying to protect the homeland, protect the continental U.S.'' a senior
intelligence official familiar with the review told Reuters.
The official said that ``nobody has worked through the mechanics of how
all of that would work,'' but said it was expected that ``one of the
things coming out of this review would be some recommendations on how to
think differently about the intelligence role in homeland defense.''
President Bush in May ordered a comprehensive review, giving CIA
Director George Tenet a ``broad mandate to challenge the status quo and
explore new and innovative techniques, systems, practices and processes
for foreign intelligence collection, analysis and distribution.''
The review is assessing programs with an eye to being ready to meet
future needs by 2015 and could recommend restructuring, the official and
intelligence analysts said in recent interviews.
It is being conducted by a panel of government insiders led by Joan
Dempsey, deputy director of central intelligence for community
management, and a group of outside experts led by Brent Scowcroft, a
former White House national security adviser.
CIA ROLE QUESTIONED
The United States has been trying to develop a large-scale emergency
plan to deal with any biological, chemical or nuclear attack on U.S.
soil. Vice President Dick Cheney is leading a review of America's
ability to cope with such an attack.
The Central Intelligence Agency is generally forbidden to spy on
Americans, but can under certain circumstances collect intelligence
information on U.S. citizens if they are believed to be involved in
espionage or terrorist activities.
The FBI is responsible for handling criminal activity inside U.S.
borders and conducted by Americans.
The review was not expected to recommend changing laws that limit the
role of U.S. intelligence agencies relative to Americans. ``We wouldn't
talk about changing any of that,'' the intelligence official said on
condition of anonymity.
``But when does homeland defense transition from being (about) criminal
activity to being (about) a national security threat? Those are the
kinds of issues that I would expect to be coming out of this review,''
the official said.
The review is looking at how to combat threats emerging from diverse
directions since the Soviet Union dissolved.
``It reflects this ongoing concern that we are now 11 years after the
end of the Cold War and we still haven't seen tremendous response to
that alteration in terms of what the intelligence community does,'' said
Mark Lowenthal, senior principal at SRA International Inc., a consulting
firm.
NEW ESPIONAGE TECHNIQUES
The review also is looking at developing new espionage techniques for
collecting foreign secrets.
``It is increasingly true that our capabilities are extremely well known
and we have to develop capabilities that aren't well known,'' the U.S.
intelligence official said.
The National Security Agency (NSA), which eavesdrops on communications
worldwide using spy satellites and listening posts, is an acknowledged
problem child -- struggling to keep pace with technological advances
from sophisticated encryption to hard-to-tap fiber optics.
``The NSA problem is really the most serious,'' Gregory Treverton, a
senior consultant at RAND and former vice chairman of the National
Intelligence Council, said.
NSA must operate differently as it becomes harder to capture signals
using traditional methods, and rely more on using people ``who will risk
their lives to put objects with ears'' close to the targeted signal,
Treverton said.
``The understandable culture of secrecy is a huge obstacle,'' he said.
For example In-Q-Tel, a CIA-sponsored venture capital firm that seeks to
bring private-sector technological innovations to the intelligence
world, has been faced with finding software it likes only to discover
that a foreigner was involved in writing it, which threatens its
secrecy, Treverton said.
In intelligence analysis, where resources are stretched to cope with the
huge volume of incoming information, one solution is to buy outside
expertise, the intelligence official said.
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