Note that the Counterintelligence
Field Activity, or CIFA, with its Talon Reports, is different from earlier reports on the National Security Agency (which is
also a Defense Department agency, by the way). And it is different from the FBI spying on PETA and others. Or the CIA. Or your city,
county and state police. A vast network looking desperately for dots to connect. Are you a dot?
How much spying are we doing
domestically? That’s a secret. What’s it cost? That’s a secret. How many mistakes are made? That’s a secret.
Eisenhower warned
us about the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex. Raygun revved up military spending ostensibly to bankrupt the Soviets (a model
bin Laden is well-aware of). With the winding down of the Cold War, what was a militarist-money-maker to do? Thank god we have an endless
war on a shadowy enemy who can never surrender.
I’m not saying that Our Savior is destroying our village to save it just because
it makes lots of money for his friends. No, I’m convinced Duhbya is mentally ill with Post Traumatic Shock Syndrome and guilt for 9/11
(perhaps coupled with prolonged oxygen deprivation after that pretzel choking incident). Perhaps Rumsfeld and Cheney are just as
deranged. These guys need help, but our healing begins with their departure. mjh
Defense Facilities Pass Along Reports of
Suspicious Activity
Raw Information’ From Military, Civilians Is Given to Pentagon
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff
Writer
Day after day, reports of suspicious activity filed from military bases and other defense installations throughout the
United States flow into the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, a three-year-old Pentagon agency whose size and budget
remain classified.
The Talon [which stands for “threat and local observation notice”] reports, as they are called, are
based on information from civilians and military personnel who stumble across people or information they think might be part of a
terrorist plot or threat against defense facilities at home or abroad. …
Talon reports grew out of a program called
Eagle Eyes, an anti-terrorist program established by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations that “enlists the eyes and ears of
Air Force members and citizens in the war on terror,” according to the program’s Web site. …
A former senior CIA official with
wide counterintelligence experience, who is familiar with CIFA’s growth, said the agency’s mandate is “ambiguous, but the Defense
Department is using its assets in its broadest terms.” He added that efforts such as Talon “could be a well-intentioned effort and it
could develop important information.” But, he said that in his view, “the Pentagon has chosen to err on the side of over-collection” of
information.
His concern, he said, was who does the intelligence “go to, and what do they do with it.”
Infoshop News – 1-800-CALL-SPY: Military intelligence database
short on threats, long on stupid Contributed by: arch_stanton
[T]he database, which contains reports such as those called in
to the DOD’s 1-800-CALL-SPY hotline, contains almost 50 anti-war meetings or protests, such as an anti-war meeting held by Quakers last
year. …
In the program’s first year, the agency received more than 5,000 TALON reports. The database obtained
by NBC News is generated by Counterintelligence Field Activity.
I’m a Soldier, Not a Spy by Grant Doty, a lieutenant colonel in
the Army
Yes, I took an oath to defend the United States against all enemies “foreign and domestic,” but the implication of
domestic intelligence-gathering by the military, even by a limited number of soldiers, should be sufficiently disturbing for American
citizens in and out of uniform that we think long and hard about crossing the line, even a little.
class="mine">Remember right after 9/11, when AssKraft came out in favor of folks like UPS, USPS, & FedEx delivery people, plus meterreaders, et. al., keeping their eyes open and letting the government know of anything suspicious. Even in the moment of our deepest shock
most people recoiled against that idea. AssKraft is gone (awaiting a Supreme Court nomination), but the ideas live on.
Seeing
Wolfowitz’s name throughout this report did nothing to reassure me. mjh