[R-G] CIFA Closes, Pentagon Opens New Spy Shop

[Anthony Fenton]

CIFA Closes, Pentagon Opens New Spy Shop
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/08/cifa-closes-pentagon-opens-new-spy-shop-2/
by Tom Burghardt / August 11th, 2008

Back in April, Antifascist Calling reported on the proposed shut-down  
of the Pentagon’s controversial Counterintelligence Field Activity  
(CIFA) office that illegally spied on the antiwar movement.

That office was officially “disestablished” August 4 by the Department  
of Defense (DoD). Simultaneously, it “activated” the Defense  
Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center (DCHC) “under the  
direction of the Defense Intelligence Agency.”

DCHC will “combine CIFA resources and responsibilities with  
longstanding DIA CI and HUMINT capabilities.” DCHC director Army Maj.  
Gen. Theodore Nicholas says that “the realignment of CIFA’s functions  
and resources into DIA strengthens the close historical and  
operational relationship between counterintelligence and HUMINT.”

According to the Associated Press, DIA’s new office will engage in  
what it calls “offensive counterintelligence” to identify what  
terrorist operatives or foreign intelligence officers are up to and  
thwart their activities.

The DoD stresses that “CIFA’s designation as a law enforcement  
activity did not transfer to DIA. The new center will have no law  
enforcement function.” In other words unlike CIFA, if we’re to believe  
the Defense Department, DCHC will not spy on Americans’ or subvert  
their constitutionally-protected rights of free speech and assembly.  
But unlike DCHC’s classified budget, talk is cheap and the devil is in  
the details which are few and far between.

CIFA: mired in cronyism, scandal and corruption

The brainchild of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and  
Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone, CIFA was  
mired in cronyism, scandal and corruption.

Indeed, disgraced Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA), now a  
convicted felon cooling his heels in a federal penitentiary, was  
caught in a cash-and-hookers-for-contracts scandal along with Mitchell  
Wade, the notorious ex-chairman of MZM Inc.

Cunningham, a member of the House Appropriations and Intelligence  
Committees, chaired the subcommittee on Human Intelligence Analysis  
and Counterintelligence that had authority over CIFA operations. Like  
any good congressman dedicated to “fighting the terrorists over there,  
so we don’t have to fight them here,” Cunningham showered MZM with  
some $16 million in dubious “earmarks” for contracts with CIFA before  
being run to ground.

One MZM deal would have allegedly provided the Pentagon office with a  
data-mining and storage system, the usual suite of “tools” for illegal  
spy operations we’ve come to expect from the Bush regime. The problem  
was, MZM’s “product” was useless and was never installed.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Wade’s shady dealings extended  
deep into CIFA’s dark heart. Wade enjoyed a “special” relationship  
with a company named Gray Hawk Systems Inc. The firm, according to  
investigative journalist Chitra Ragavan, “obtained several lucrative  
and questionable contracts from CIFA, which it then shared with MZM.”

To sweeten the grift, “three senior CIFA officials with influence over  
the contracting process left the agency and joined Gray Hawk,”  
according to Ragavan. With knowledgeable insiders in place, Wade was  
then able to “craft earmarks for Cunningham,” who then inserted them  
into appropriations bills worth tens of millions of dollars. After  
that, Cunningham was able to pressure “Pentagon officials to award the  
contracts to Gray Hawk and MZM.”

Pretty neat trick, eh? Unfortunately for Wade, his extracurricular  
activities earned him an eight year sentence in federal prison like  
his buddy, the “Dukester.”

Gray Hawk was purchased in 2005 for $100 million by ManTech  
International Corp. in an “all cash acquisition,” according to  
Washington Technology. Approximately 90% of the firm’s employees hold  
security clearances which, as we’ve previously described, are  
marketable commodities. No charges were ever brought against Gray Hawk  
or its corporate officers.

But wait, there’s more!

Before the smoke cleared, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the CIA’s Executive  
Director, former Iran-Contra operative and close confidant of both ex- 
CIA Director Porter Goss and convicted fraudster Brent Wilkes, the  
former CEO of ADCS Inc., was indicted in 2007 on charges of fraud,  
conspiracy and money laundering. On February 19, 2008, Foggo’s poker- 
playing pal Wilkes was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for his  
role as Mitchell Wade’s “subcontractor” in CIFA shenanigans, according  
to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

However, the execution of a search warrant on a top CIA official by  
San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam in May 2006, proved too much for the  
Bush administration and their close political allies in the Republican  
party. In addition to Cunningham, Wade, Foggo and Wilkes, Lam’s net  
now was closing around several other congressmen involved in CIFA  
sleaze.

Indeed Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonazales’ Chief of Staff, was enmeshed  
in the scandal over fired U.S. Attorneys by the Bush regime. When the  
Justice Dept. learned of the Foggo search warrant, the very next day  
Sampson wrote an e-mail to his political masters stating the need to  
discuss “the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam.” Shortly  
thereafter, Lam was forced to resign and became one of the first  
victims of the “Attorneygate” scandal that eventually led to Gonzales’  
forced resignation as U.S. Attorney General.

Foggo’s 2007 indictment was superseded when the CIA’s former No. 3 was  
indicted on new charges filed May 20, 2008 by federal prosecutors. The  
new indictment charged Foggo with accepting tens of thousands of  
dollars in “gratuities” and “sexual companionship” (the hookers in  
“hookergate”) in exchange for helping Wilkes secure plum government  
contracts. His trial is currently pending.

Small world…of crony capitalist grifting on a grand scale!

CIFA targets the antiwar movement

But the “hookergate” scandal was the least of CIFA’s problems. The  
office was caught red-handed spying on Americans when the American  
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) obtained documents detailing the  
Pentagon’s illegal domestic spying operation.

Multiple news reports beginning in late 2005 revealed that CIFA, with  
400 full-time DoD workers and 900 “outsourced” contractor employees  
and a classified budget, had been authorized to track “potential  
terrorist threats” against DoD through reports known as Threat and  
Local Observation Notices (TALON).

As it turned out, “nonvalidated” TALON reports were maintained in a  
huge database that compiled information on antiwar activists who  
organized demonstrations and vigils near U.S. military bases. Even  
when supposed “threats” were designated “not credible,” the office  
retained the files nonetheless.

Examples of TALON reports were subsequently published by The National  
Security Archive on their website. According to Archive analyst  
Jeffrey Richelson,

     There were approximately four dozen reports concerning anti-war  
meetings or protests, including reports that remained in the database  
long after it was concluded that the targets were unrelated to any  
threat. Among the meetings that attracted the attention of military  
counterintelligence authorities were a large anti-war protest in Los  
Angeles in March 2005, a planned protest against military recruiters  
in Boston in December 2004, a planned demonstration outside the gates  
of the Fort Collins, Colorado, military base, and a planned protest at  
McDonald’s National Salute to America’s Heroes–a military air and sea  
show in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It was concluded that the Ft.  
Lauderdale protest was not a credible threat and a column in the  
database noted that it was a “US group exercising constitutional  
rights.” (”The Pentagon’s Counterspies,” The National Security  
Archive, September 17, 2007)

The TALON database was shut down in September and future “threat  
reports” would now “be funneled to an FBI database known as Guardian,”  
Wired reported last August. Guardian and its related e-Guardian  
database will be available for sharing “certain unclassified  
information” with state and local law enforcement officers. “Once  
sharing agreements are signed,” according to SourceWatch, “police  
chiefs and sheriffs will be able to query local terrorism threats and  
also submit terrorism information to the FBI through e-Guradian.”

However, “in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements,”  
even though CIFA is now closed, DoD “will maintain a record copy of  
the collected data,” SourceWatch revealed. In other words TALON  
reports, including data illegally collected on antiwar activists, will  
continue to exist somewhere deep in the bowels of the Defense  
Department.

The ties that bind (and pay handsomely in the process!)

Though CIFA is gone, the DoD’s new office will retain many of the  
characteristics of its predecessor, including DIA’s reliance on  
outsourced contracts to private defense and security firms. According  
to a July 22, 2008 Memorandum from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon  
England obtained by Cryptome,

     On August 3, 2008, all DoD CIFA CI missions, responsibilities,  
functions, and authorities as well as all associated resources  
including all personnel, support contracts and contractors, and  
appropriate records and archives shall transition in place to DIA.  
Personnel transfer notifications, as appropriate and required, shall  
be accomplished in advance of the August 3, 2008, transfer from DoD  
CIFA to DIA. [emphasis added]

Major CIFA contractors included QinetiQ, a British-owned defense and  
intelligence firm based in McClean, Virginia. Investigative journalist  
Tim Shorrock reported in January for CorpWatch that QinetiQ’s “Mission  
Solutions Group, formerly Analex Corporation, had just signed a five- 
year, $30 million contract to provide a range of unspecified ’security  
services’.” Interestingly enough, Cambone became a QinetiQ vice  
president when he left the Pentagon and CIFA signed the QinetiQ deal a  
scant two months after he was hired. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

CIFA’s brief included a Directorate of Field Activities, tasked with  
“preserving the most critical defense assets;” the Counterintelligence  
and Law Enforcement Center, designated as the office to “identify and  
assess threats;” and Behavioral Sciences, the office that provided “a  
team of renowned forensic psychologists [who] are engaged in risk  
assessments of the Guantanamo Bay detainees,” according to Shorrock.

Will the CIFA shut-down and the transference of its intelligence brief  
to DIA mean that a privatized military-surveillance complex is now a  
relic of the corrupt Bush regime? Hardly. According to estimates, some  
30-40% of DIA personnel are outsourced contractors themselves.

Indeed, Washington Technology reported that “the Defense Intelligence  
Agency is planning a billion-dollar contract for information  
technology and services.” According to the brief report, the contract  
“to be known as the Solutions for Information Technology Enterprise,  
will be open to Defense Department intelligence agencies, the Army,  
Air Force, Navy and Marines Corps as well as non-DOD agencies involved  
in intelligence.” (emphasis added)

Back in April, the publication reported that eight giant multinational  
defense and security firms “won prime contracts” from DIA “for  
military intelligence analysis services.” The companies included BAE  
Systems Inc., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., CACI International Inc.,  
Concurrent Technologies Corp., L-3 Communications Corp., Northrop  
Grumman Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and SRA  
International Inc. In other words, the usual suspects!

Interestingly enough, two items that appeared last week in the federal  
insider and high-tech defense industry press paint DIA “partner”  
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in a less than  
favorable light, to say the least!

The first item was an August 5 piece in Washington Technology, that  
detailed how the Department of Homeland Security had to “suspend a  
procurement” for the upcoming TopOff 5 (Top Officials) “national  
disaster drill to investigate improprieties in the contracting  
process.” According to Alice Lipowicz,

     …lawmakers said a contractor who apparently wrote parts of FEMA’s  
request for proposals for the Topoff 5 contract might also be a bidder  
on the contract. If so, that would present an unfair competitive  
advantage due to an organizational conflict of interest, and possibly  
other ethics infractions. The senators also said FEMA officials did  
not recognize the potential conflict nor approve a mitigation  
strategy, such as firewalls, that would have mitigated it.

     The contractor has not been named, but sources identified it as  
SAIC, which confirmed it submitted a bid for the Topoff 5 work. (”FEMA  
Suspends TopOff, SAIC Drops out of Competition,” Washington  
Technology, August 5, 2008)

The second item appeared the very next day, when Federal Times  
revealed that SAIC had been found guilty of violating the False Claims  
Act “and ordered the company to pay the government $6 million in  
damages.” Elsie Castelli reports,

     SAIC failed to disclose conflicts of interest that could have  
biased the company’s work assisting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,  
the jury found. SAIC was hired by the agency to help it develop a rule  
to govern the recycling of radioactive waste from nuclear facilities.  
The jury ruled the company concealed its relationships with private  
firms that would benefit from the rule, and made 77 false statements  
and claims to obtain payment on two NRC contracts in the 1990s. (”SAIC  
Found Guilty of False Claims Act Violations,” Federal Times, August 6,  
2008)

The second case is far more serious since “companies found liable” for  
submitting false claims “are subject to suspension or debarment,”  
Federal Times reports.

SAIC, No. 5 on Washington Technology’s “Top 100 List” of Federal prime  
contractors, clocked in with $4,919,829,998, more than two thirds of  
which were defense and security related. “No such actions have been  
taken against SAIC, according to the government’s Excluded Parties  
List, which tracks suspensions and debarments,” according to Federal  
Times.

Would anyone care to wager whether or not the San Diego-based defense  
and security giant will be suspended or debarred from future  
government contracts? I didn’t think so.

While the Defense Department claims that the Defense  
Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center will “have no law  
enforcement function,” the question remains: with a massive domestic  
intelligence apparatus aimed like a Borg death-ray at America’s  
democratic Republic, where has the Pentagon’s “law enforcement  
function” been transferred?

According to investigative journalist Erin Rosa’s report in The  
Colorado Independent, “the military will… be sharing intelligence  
information and providing support through U.S. Northern Command,  
(NORTHCOM) a unit stationed at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado  
Springs that was created in 2002 for homeland defense missions,”  
during the upcoming Democratic National Convention later this month in  
Denver.

The more things change…

Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco  
Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly, Love &  
Rage and Antifa Forum, he is the editor of Police State America: U.S.  
Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press. Read  
other articles by Tom, or visit Tom's website.