XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.politics.org.fbi, alt.privacy   
   XPost: alt.politics.immigration   
   From: d@ray   
      
   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 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 includes   
   people held in immigrant detention centers, local jails, and federal   
   prison. DHS’s intelligence professionals have to say they’re conducting   
   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 important 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, uses it to gather   
   information about threats to the U.S., including transnational drug   
   trafficking and organized crime. 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 POLITICO 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.   
      
   Carrie Bachner, formerly the career senior legislative adviser to the DHS   
   under secretary for intelligence, said the fact that the agency is directly   
   questioning Americans as part of a domestic-intelligence program is deeply   
   concerning, given the history of scandals related to past   
   domestic-intelligence programs by the FBI.   
      
   Bachner, who served as a DHS liaison with Capitol Hill from 2006 to 2010,   
   said she told members of Congress “adamantly” — over and over and over   
   again — that I&A didn’t collect intelligence in the U.S.   
      
   “I don’t know any counsel in their right mind that would sign off on that,   
   and any member of Congress that would say, ‘That’s OK,’” said Bachner,   
   who   
   currently runs a consulting firm. “If these people are out there   
   interviewing folks that still have constitutional privileges, without their   
   lawyer present, that’s immoral.”   
      
   DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Kenneth Wainstein, a   
   former federal prosecutor who took the helm of I&A last June, said in a   
   statement that his office is addressing its employees’ concerns. An I&A   
   spokesperson provided POLITICO with a list of steps the office has taken   
   since September 2020 to address internal complaints, including conducting a   
   number of new trainings and hiring two full-time ombudsmen.   
      
   In its statement, I&A did not address the domestic-intelligence program.   
   But POLITICO reviewed an email, sent last August, saying that the portion   
   of the program involving interviews with prisoners who had received their   
   Miranda rights was “temporarily halted” because of internal concerns.   
      
   “The true measure of a government organization is its ability to persevere   
   through challenging times, openly acknowledge and learn from those   
   challenges, and move forward in service of the American people,” Wainstein   
   said in his statement. “The Office of Intelligence and Analysis has done   
   just that over the past few years ... Together, we will ensure that our   
   work is completely free from politicization, that our workforce feels free   
   to raise all views and concerns, and that we continue to deliver the   
   quality, objective intelligence that is so vital to our homeland security   
   partners.”   
      
   ‘A loophole that we exploit’   
      
   A key theme that emerges from internal documents is that in recent years,   
   many people working at I&A have said they fear they are breaking the law.   
      
   POLITICO reviewed a slide deck titled “I&A Management Analysis & Assistance   
   Program Survey Findings for FOD.” FOD refers to I&A’s Field Operations   
   Division — now called the Office of Regional Intelligence — which is the   
   largest part of the office, with personnel working around the country.   
   Those officials work with state, local and private sector partners; collect   
   intelligence; and analyze intelligence. When the U.S. faces a domestic   
   crisis related to national security or public safety, people in this   
   section are expected to be the first in I&A to know about it and then to   
   relay what they learn to the office’s leadership. Their focuses include   
   domestic terror attacks, cyber attacks, border security issues, and natural   
   disasters, along with a host of other threats and challenges.   
      
   The survey described in the slide deck was conducted in April 2021. A   
   person familiar with the survey said it asked respondents about events of   
   2020. Its findings were based on 126 responses. Half of the respondents   
   said they’d alerted managers of their concerns that their work involved   
   activity that was inappropriate or illegal. The slide deck seems to try to   
   put a positive spin on this.   
      
   “There is an opportunity to work with employees to address concerns they   
   have about the appropriateness or lawfulness of a work activity,” it reads.   
      
   “Half of the respondents have voiced to management a concern about this,   
   many of whom feel their concern was not appropriately addressed.”   
      
   Other documents laid out concerns related to a specific internal dispute   
   about how the law applies to I&A’s interactions with American citizens.   
      
   Three legal texts govern I&A’s activities: Title 50 of the U.S. Code, which   
   lays out laws about national security; Executive Order 12333, which details   
   how the Intelligence Community works; and the Homeland Security Act of   
      
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