[Marxism] Updating COINTELPRO - "Fighting terrorism is the No. 1 priority of the department"

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gonzales Mulls Need for Terror Reform
Vanessa Blum, Legal Times, 06-03-2005

The Justice Department is in the final stages of presenting President
George W. Bush with a proposal to overhaul the department's
counterterrorism efforts.

The most dramatic option being considered would create a new national
security division within the Justice Department -- a move that would
transfer responsibility for fighting terrorism from the Criminal
Division to a new counterterrorism czar at the upper levels of the
department.

In a May 25 interview with Legal Times, Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales laid out arguments in support of reorganization.

"Fighting terrorism is the No. 1 priority of the department. Yet we
don't have a centralized point within the department that addresses
solely terrorism-related issues," he said.
. . .
"Right now, the Justice Department components that handle national
security issues are scattered far and wide, and there is no real
umbrella structure to hold those pieces together," says David Kris, a
former DOJ lawyer who worked on intelligence issues in the Bill Clinton
and current Bush administrations. "When other members of intelligence
community want to coordinate with the Justice Department, they may not
know where to go."

Supporters liken the approach to an American version of Britain's MI-5
intelligence service and argue that a new division should de-emphasize
prosecution and focus on the broader goal of preventing terrorism.
. . .
HARSH WORDS
The Silberman-Robb report does not mince words in its appraisal of the
Justice Department's current structure, calling it "awkward" and
"outdated." The panel's harshest criticism is aimed at the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, which it says has failed to adapt from a
crime-fighting agency to an effective intelligence agency.

Under the commission's plan for Main Justice, the Counterterrorism and
Counterespionage sections of the Criminal Division would be joined with
the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, which is responsible for
processing top-secret warrants under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, or FISA.

"[B]ringing [the OIPR] closer to its institutional counterparts like
the Counterespionage and Counterterrorism sections would give the
office better insight into actual intelligence practices and make it
better attuned to operational needs," the commission report states.
. . .

The more-limited proposal to create an intelligence division that would
not split off counterterrorism altogether from the Criminal Division is
backed by a number of DOJ officials who believe that it would bring
many of the same benefits as a national security division without as
much risk. An assistant attorney general for intelligence would oversee
the retooling of FBI intelligence efforts and serve as a contact for
other intelligence agencies. Because the largest component in such a
division would be the OIPR, one senior DOJ official says the plan is
sometimes referred to as "OIPR on steroids."

The proposal is also likely to win a warmer reception from civil
libertarians who want to keep some barriers in place between
intelligence gathering and law enforcement. Activists on both ends of
the political spectrum are generally suspicious of close collaboration
between the OIPR and prosecutors because FISA surveillance offers fewer
protections for targets than those authorized by ordinary criminal
courts.

"We would not want to see FISA become a tool for criminal
prosecutions," says Kate Martin, director of the Center for National
Security Studies.

Gonzales' goals seem very different. "One of the benefits that came out
of the Patriot Act is this focus on sharing information," he said.
"Looking forward, anything that we do, we have to do in a way that
makes certain we don't re-erect those walls."
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1117703113351

from Brian Shannon
_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism