FROM THE BUSH LITE FILES:

DIA to open new counterintelligence records unit (Jeff Stein, 6/15/10, Washington Post)

The Defense Intelligence Agency wants to open a new repository for information about individuals and groups in what appears to be a successor to a controversial counterintelligence program that was disbanded in 2008.

The new Foreign Intelligence and Counterintelligence Operation Records section will be housed in DIA’s Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center, or DCHC, formed after the demise of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, according to an announcement that appeared Tuesday in the Federal Register.

The "activity" was disbanded, but evidently not its records database, which seems to be headed to the new unit. [...]

"It’s a little hard to tell what this is exactly, but we do know that DIA took over 'offensive counterintelligence' for the DoD once CIFA was abandoned," said Mike German, a former FBI Special Agent who is now policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union. "It therefore makes sense that this new DIA data base would be collecting the same types of information that CIFA collected improperly, so Americans should be just as concerned."

The Defense Department has also started collecting Suspicious Activity Reports, German pointed out, "which they share with federal, state and local law enforcement through the FBI eGuardian system."

Tuesday’s announcement in the Federal Register was vague about the kinds of intelligence the new records center will hold.

It said that it would hold information on “individuals involved in, or of interest to, DoD intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and counter-narcotic operations or analytical projects as well as individuals involved in foreign intelligence and/or training activities.”

Supreme Court Upholds Law Barring 'Material Support' for Terror Groups: Critics Argue Nonviolent Advice to Terror Groups Protected by First Amendment (ARIANE de VOGUE, June 21, 2010 , 6/21/10, ABC News)

Justice Stephen Breyer, who was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor in the dissenting opinion, took the unusual step of reading his dissent from the bench.

"I believe application of the statute as the government interprets it would gravely and without adequate justification injure interests of the kind the First Amendment protects," said Breyer.

"The government has not made the strong showing necessary to justify under the First Amendment the criminal prosecution of those who engage in these activities. All the activities involve the communication and advocacy of political ideas and lawful means of achieving political ends," he said.

During oral arguments, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, had called the material support law a "vital weapon" in the fight against international terrorism.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 21, 2010 1:46 PM