The Defense Intelligence Agency is seeking an exemption from US law to give officers greater latitude in interviewing potential intelligence sources inside the US, the agency's top lawyers said on Friday.
The provision, which was already approved by the Senate, would allow defense intelligence officers to interview potential intelligence sources inside the US without first identifying themselves as US government officials.
The lawyers said the agency's efforts to recruit spies inside the country, something they said had become an increasing part of the agency's mission, had been hamstrung by provisions of the Privacy Act, which require that government employees notify Americans when they are collecting information from them.
intelligence
collection
The lawyers said the change would merely extend to the Defense Intelligence Agency an authority already granted to the CIA and law enforcement agencies for their intelligence-collection missions. They said the DIA had no intention of spying on Americans, but needed the new authority to help identify and recruit sources knowledgeable about terrorist groups, weapons proliferation or other activities of interest to US military commanders.
The House has not yet approved any measure that would provide the Defense Intelligence Agency with the exemption, but the agency lawyers said they hoped a House-Senate conference committee would agree to include the exemption in a final version of the Intelligence Authorization Act already passed by the Senate.
Jim Schmidli, the agency's deputy general counsel for operations, said the current rules amounted to a "cold shower" for a potential source.
"Our collectors have come in and said this just isn't working," Schmidli said.
disclosing
affiliation
Under the change being sought by the agency, the DIA officer would not need to disclose his affiliation until he actually sought to recruit a potential source.
A Democratic congressional official said the proposal had won backing from Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee. But the official said there was some concern among Democrats that civil liberties groups might see the proposal as a way to allow defense intelligence officers to play an overly broad role in intelligence-gathering within the US.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS