America’s Secret Police?

[IDemo]

Intelligence experts warn that a proposal to merge two Pentagon intelligence units could create an ominous new agency.

By Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 6:18 p.m. ET April 12, 2006

April 12, 2006 - A threatened turf grab by a controversial Pentagon intelligence unit is causing concern among both privacy experts and some of the Defense Department’s own personnel.

An informal panel of senior Pentagon officials has been holding a series of unannounced private meetings during the past several weeks about how to proceed with a possible merger between the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), a post-9/11 Pentagon creation that has been accused of domestic spying, and the Defense Security Service (DSS), a well-established older agency responsible for inspecting the security arrangements of defense contractors. DSS also maintains millions of confidential files containing the results of background investigations on defense contractors’ employees.

The merger was initially suggested by a government commission set up to recommend military base closures last year. The commission said that the Pentagon could achieve some savings by relocating both CIFA, now housed in a building near Washington’s Reagan National Airport and DSS, headquartered in nearby Alexandria, Va. The panel suggested moving the two agencies to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., where FBI training and laboratory facilities are also based.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission also suggested that the Pentagon could “disestablish” CIFA and DSS and “consolidate their components into the Department of Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12290187/site/newsweek/

[Blue_Tires]

1. ttt n/t

[WhiteTara]

2. k&r for the last vestiges of freedom

:kick:

[swag]

3. Front page, por favor

recommended

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

4. How else would our King George take revenge?...

[Canuckistanian]

5. Spooky.

Where'd you get the graphic? Was this a leak?

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. I could tell you, but then I'd have to Swift Boat you. nt.

[Canuckistanian]

7. LOL, do your worst

I served in the Texas Air National Guard "Champagne Unit".

I'm invincible!

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. Oh yeah? Well I once served as Song Leader...

...in Little Hoosiers back in my school days in Indiana. I don't think you know who your messin' with, mister.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Uncle! Uncle!

Please don't hurt me! I confess! I'm a card-carrying red! For gawd's sake, think of the children!
:D

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

10. Don't worry I'm not gonna sing. Here are some...

...lyrics for our closer song to the weekly Little Hoosier meetings, as I'm quite sure you're interested:

Oh the moonlights fair tonight along the Wabash
from the fields there comes a breathe of new mown hay

From the candle light the sycamores are gleaming
on the banks of the Wabash far away.

--------------

Now you go get a Kleenex, dry your eyes, and run off to bed lest I batter you with the lyrics to the meeting opener song called Little Hoosiers. Trust me, you don't want the nightmares that come after being exposed to this song...It's why I've grown up to become such a troubled man.

[Canuckistanian]

11. I'll be good, I promise

Whew, that was close. Nothing a good psychiatrist couldn't fix in a couple of decades.

G'night!

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

12. I just googled "On the Banks of the Wabash" and...

...it seems intrepid Song Leader doesn't have the words to the closer quite right. Here's the fix:

Oh, the moonlight's fair tonight along the Wabash,
From the fields there comes the breath of newmown hay.
Through the sycamores the candle lights are gleaming,
On the banks of the Wabash, far away.

---------------

I wondered why they didn't ask me to do it again my second year.