----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 1:15 PM Subject: Clinton Creates New Super-Spy Board [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at ListBot http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Clinton Creates Counterintelligence Board FBI, CIA, Defense Dept. Will Combine Efforts to Find Strategies to Fight Spying By David A. Vise Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 5, 2001; Page A05 President Clinton has signed an order establishing a counterintelligence board that will bring together high-ranking FBI, CIA and Defense Department officials in an effort to devise a more effective strategy to combat spying, senior administration officials said yesterday. Dubbed "CI-21," which stands for counterintelligence for the 21st century, the "presidential decision directive" creates a board of directors chaired by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh that is charged with implementing a "pro-active" counterespionage program. The board will hire an executive who will be the federal government's foremost expert on counterintelligence, officials said. "It is a dramatic change," a senior Clinton administration official said. "It is revolutionary in its focus and perspective." In addition to Freeh, other members of the board will be the CIA deputy director, the deputy secretary of defense and a representative of the attorney general. The operation will be run out of offices at the CIA. The presidential directive is significant, senior Clinton administration officials said, because it restructures the counterintelligence community by formalizing information-sharing without regard to borders or federal agencies. It also reflects a heightened focus on economic espionage and other types of spying, rather than solely emphasizing the protection of government secrets. "We have always looked at spies and tried to figure out who was spying on us and what they were after," a senior administration official said. "Now, we are looking more at what it is we want to protect. We will no longer focus on embassies as the centers of foreign intelligence-gathering activities." The CI-21 concept was developed in the aftermath of the Wen Ho Lee case and other security lapses that revealed systemic failures in sharing information about spying. While information will be shared and counterespionage strategy coordinated, the CIA will not be permitted to conduct surveillance activities in the United States; its agents will continue to operate abroad. Former FBI counterterrorism chief Bob Blitzer said CI-21 represents a major improvement. "It is a big change because of the deliberate focus" on counterespionage, Blitzer said. "This new structure will bring everyone together in terms of how to assess what is going on abroad, what is going on here, and what the entire intelligence community needs to do to counter past, present and emerging threats." The first task of the board of directors will be to produce a study identifying American threats and vulnerabilities. And under CI-21, the National Security Council, composed of Cabinet-level secretaries with responsibility for security issues, also will have a new oversight role in counterintelligence. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos - Share your holiday photos online! http://photos.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
