WASHINGTON — Senior officials with the Defense Intelligence Agency took the rare step Friday of describing the service's intelligence-gathering operations in the United States in an effort to counter concerns by privacy advocates that it could abuse new spying authority being considered by Congress.
Existing laws have prevented DIA officers from approaching U.S. residents, including recent arrivals from Iraq and other nations in the Middle East, who might have valuable information on developments in their home countries, the officials said. The restrictions hinder domestic intelligence collection on an array of important foreign targets, said George Peirce, the DIA's general counsel.
However, legislation sought by the DIA and recently approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee would exempt DIA and other military intelligence officers from laws requiring them to disclose their Pentagon ties before seeking information from U.S. citizens or residents, freeing the DIA to collect information undercover.
If Congress approves the measure, Peirce said, the DIA "might be able to more effectively seek leads in the United States on identification of bomb makers in Iraq." The agency, he said, would also be in better position "to obtain information voluntarily from immigrants, now resident aliens, who have contacts in the old country that might provide critical details on WMD capabilities and programs."
Peirce's comments in a telephone interview were an unusual public acknowledgment of the Pentagon's domestic spying operations. Peirce and a senior deputy agreed to the interview in large part to respond to critics who have expressed concern that relaxing restrictions on domestic intelligence gathering could lead to abuses by the Pentagon in spying on Americans.
Jim Schmidli, deputy general counsel for operations at the DIA, said the proposed legislation would mainly be useful in allowing agency operatives to use different "cover" arrangements when approaching recent arrivals to the United States. He declined to elaborate, but logical cover arrangements could involve posing as business executives or officials of other government agencies.
"The ones we are primarily interested in are permanent resident aliens -- green card holders," Schmidli said. "They come from countries where [contact with] intelligence services or security services aren't good things to have happen in your life. It has a meaning to them that is very unpleasant."
