This is part of the reorganization of Washington’s spying operations at home and abroad as the U.S. rulers drive through a transformation of their military to more effectively fight their “war on terrorism.”

In December, the White House beat back an attempt to weaken the Pentagon’s control of its “intelligence gathering” operations. Under the “intelligence reform” bill passed in December, Washington’s spying operations are being centralized by a cabinet level Director of National Intelligence directly responsible to the president. Exempted from this centralization are the Pentagon’s massive spying operations. Around 80 percent of the government budget for spying falls under Defense Department control.

The FBI has begun hiring hundreds of intelligence analysts and other specialists and setting up groups of field offices solely dedicated to spying. Top officials of the agencies, including FBI director Robert Mueller and CIA chief Peter Goss, have been in discussions since December to rewrite the ground rules delineating their turfs regarding spying in the United States and abroad, the Times reported.

U.S. president George Bush issued an order in 2003 enabling the FBI to conduct spy operations aimed at foreign targets when requested by “officials of the intelligence community designated by the president,” the Times said. The order also requires CIA-conducted spy operations on U.S. soil aimed at foreign targets “to be coordinated with the FBI.”

Both agencies were sharply criticized for “intelligence failures” during the 9/11 Commission hearings last year. Ultimately, the commission and Congressional hearings backed the government’s course for the blossoming spying arm of the FBI to remain and to be allowed to grow, the Times said.

A main conclusion of both hearings was the need for freer exchange of information between various government spy agencies. “The nature of the threat requires joint operations,” said an unnamed source familiar with the FBI’s expansion plans, according to the Times. “With the CIA and FBI operating together, more of the foreign intelligence requirements of the United States will be met.”

A central component of the transformation of the U.S. military championed by the White House and pushed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is to develop joint operations capabilities between the branches of the military structured around special operations troops as the leading force.

The CIA has been the main agency responsible for U.S. spy operations overseas. It also has domestic stations in most major U.S. cities. CIA agents in these stations glean information from travelers and recruit U.S. citizens or foreign visitors who may have friends or relatives in a position to “provide information on foreign targets,” according to the Times. The CIA, for example, has been actively recruiting informants from Southern California’s large Iranian-American population, seeking spies that could help Washington open more doors for its agents in Iran, the paper said. The FBI is more and more getting into the action around such operations.

These steps are part of clearing the decks of restraints placed on U.S. military and other intelligence operations within the United States following the 1975 Senate Church Committee Report. That report detailed sweeping violations of constitutional rights by the FBI and other government spy agencies carrying out operations against opponents of the Vietnam War, supporters of the civil rights movement, the labor movement, and others.  
 
 
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