-Caveat Lector- CIA role may grow in preventing US terror attacks http://www.brecorder.com/story/000000/200107/20010731/200107310509.shtml> .......WASHINGTON : A US intelligence review is exploring possible new roles for the CIA and other spy agencies in the domestic arena to protect the United States from terrorist attack, a senior intelligence official said. US intelligence agencies operate overseas and are generally prohibited from having a hand in domestic affairs to ensure a taboo against spying on Americans is not broken. It is not clear yet what new role they might take on. ......."We know that we're going to increasingly be a target in this country and we also know that intelligence is going to have a role to play in trying to protect the homeland, protect the continental US" a senior intelligence official familiar with the review told Reuters. .......The official said that "nobody has worked through the mechanics of how all of that would work," but said it was expected that "one of the things coming out of this review would be some recommendations on how to think differently about the intelligence role in homeland defence." .......President George W. Bush in May ordered a comprehensive review, giving CIA Director George Tenet a "broad mandate to challenge the status quo and explore new and innovative techniques, systems, practices and processes for foreign intelligence collection, analysis and distribution." .......The review is assessing programs with an eye to being ready to meet future needs by 2015 and could recommend restructuring, the official and intelligence analysts said in recent interviews. .......It is being conducted by a panel of government insiders led by Joan Dempsey, deputy director of central intelligence for community management, and a group of outside experts led by Brent Scowcroft, a former White House national security adviser. .......CIA ROLE QUESTIONED: The United States has been trying to develop a large-scale emergency plan to deal with any biological, chemical or nuclear attack on US soil. Vice President Dick Cheney is leading a review of America's ability to cope with such an attack. .......The Central Intelligence Agency is generally forbidden to spy on Americans, but can under certain circumstances collect intelligence information on US citizens if they are believed to be involved in espionage or terrorist activities. .......The FBI is responsible for handling criminal activity inside US borders and conducted by Americans. .......The review was not expected to recommend changing laws that limit the role of US intelligence agencies relative to Americans. "We wouldn't talk about changing any of that," the intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. ......."But when does homeland defence transition from being (about) criminal activity to being (about) a national security threat? Those are the kinds of issues that I would expect to be coming out of this review," the official said. .......The review is looking at how to combat threats emerging from diverse directions since the Soviet Union dissolved. ......."It reflects this ongoing concern that we are now 11 years after the end of the Cold War and we still haven't seen tremendous response to that alteration in terms of what the intelligence community does," said Mark Lowenthal, senior principal at SRA International Inc, a consulting firm. .......NEW ESPIONAGE TECHNIQUES: The review also is looking at developing new espionage techniques for collecting foreign secrets. ......."It is increasingly true that our capabilities are extremely well known and we have to develop capabilities that aren't well known," the US intelligence official said. .......The National Security Agency (NSA), which eavesdrops on communications worldwide using spy satellites and listening posts, is an acknowledged problem child - struggling to keep pace with technological advances from sophisticated encryption to hard-to-tap fibre optics. ......."The NSA problem is really the most serious," Gregory Treverton, a senior consultant at RAND and former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council, said. .......NSA must operate differently as it becomes harder to capture signals using traditional methods, and rely more on using people "who will risk their lives to put objects with ears" close to the targeted signal, Treverton said. ......."The understandable culture of secrecy is a huge obstacle," he said. .......For example In-Q-Tel, a CIA-sponsored venture capital firm that seeks to bring private-sector technological innovations to the intelligence world, has been faced with finding software it likes only to discover that a foreigner was involved in writing it, which threatens its secrecy, Treverton said. .......In intelligence analysis, where resources are stretched to cope with the huge volume of incoming information, one solution is to buy outside expertise, the intelligence official said. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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