For Years, the Department of Homeland Security has run a virtually unknown program gathering domestic intelligence, One of many revelations in a wide-ranging tranche of internal documents reviewed by the publication Politico.
Those documents also reveal that a significant number of employees in DHS’s intelligence office have raised concerns that the work they are doing could be illegal.
Under the Domestic-Intelligence Program, officials are allowed to seek interviews with just about anyone in the United States. That include people held in Immigrant Detention Centers, local jails, and federal prison. Dhs’s intelligence professionals have to say they’re behavior intelligence interviews, and they have to tell the People they seek to interview that their participation is voluntary. But the fact that they’re allowed to go directly to incarcerated people – circumventing their lawyers – raises civil liberties concerns, according to legal experts. That specific element of the program, which has been in place for years, was paused last year because of internal concerns. DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which runs the program, use it to gather information about threats to the U.S. But the fact that this low-profile office is collecting intelligence by questioning people in the U.S. is virtually unknown.
The inner workings of the program — called the “Overt Human Intelligence Collection Program” — are described in the large tranche of internal documents the publication reviewed from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. Those documents and additional interviews revealed widespread internal concerns about legally questionable tactics and political pressure. The documents also show that people working there fear punishment if they speak out about mismanagement and abuses.
One unnamed employee — quoted in an April 2021 document — said leadership of I&A’s Office of Regional Intelligence “is ‘shady’ and ‘runs like a corrupt government.’” Another document said some employees worried so much about the legality of their activities that they wanted their employer to cover legal liability insurance.
Write a Reply or Comment
You should Sign In or Sign Up account to post comment.