ICE, CBP Want To Sit With The Adults, Angling For Entrance Into The Intelligence Community
from the all-about-foreigners-but-operating-domestically dept
Has the DHS been trying to put the "IC" in ICE? A letter reviewed by Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast seems to indicate ICE is possibly now part of the "Intelligence Community," bringing it in line with the FBI, CIA, and others who have access to the NSA's collections.
The revelation came in a letter that David Glawe, DHS’ undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, wrote to Congress late last year. This letter, the contents of which have not been previously reported, sheds new light on ICE’s relationship with the 17 U.S. government organizations that collect and analyze intelligence, known collectively as the Intelligence Community or IC.
It's no secret ICE wants in. Previous reporting by The Daily Beast shows ICE and CBP both felt they had something to offer the Intelligence Community. Both agencies collect a lot of data on travelers and visitors, and the latter agency is cloning the contents of electronic devices (phones, laptops, etc.) with increasing frequency.
This attempt to cozy up to the IC was noticed by members of Congress, who asked for clarification on ICE's intents and partnerships. This led to a letter from David Glawe the Beast reviewed -- sent late last year -- claiming ICE's application for membership had been declined.
“The Secretary of Homeland Security and I agree that this is not the right time to pursue potential IC membership for CBP and ICE,” he wrote.
That's what part of the letter states. The rest of it, however, isn't nearly as clear. As Woodruff points out, Glawe's answer is filled with jargon, making it difficult to parse ICE/CBP's links to the IC. But there's enough contained in the letter to make it appear as though ICE/CBP are doing exactly the thing David Glawe says they're not doing. The letter refers to ICE's "enhanced intelligence capabilities," which include "collection." This could be referring to some unreported programs ICE is running or new tech it's deployed. But it also could mean what it says literally: that ICE is tapping into the IC's collections.
This densely-worded flow of contradictions has raised concerns in the civil liberties community. (It should raise concerns elsewhere, but it almost always starts here.) What it sounds like is potentially-unlawful domestic surveillance.
“I’m curious about the phrases ‘fuses intelligence into operational functions’ and ‘activities to inform actions,’ which sound like there is some type of information sharing arrangement going on,” said Jake Laperruque, a lawyer for the Project on Government Oversight who focuses on privacy and surveillance. “If information is coming from PATRIOT Act Sec. 215 or FISA Section 702, that would be a huge controversy.”
Domestic surveillance in the interest of enforcing immigration laws would be a new twist on an old formula. Other IC components already have access to NSA data stores, which allow them to perform backdoor searches on domestic data and communications. ICE operates domestically but targets foreign persons here unlawfully. That novel blend will make blurring the lines on access to domestic communications and data that much easier.
Added to this mix is the CBP's newfound enthusiasm for demanding social media account passwords and performing forensic searches of electronic devices. These two initiatives routinely ensnare US citizens and others here legally. With an IC partnership, domestic surveillance would expand -- all under the theory that anything shared will result in better national security.
The Daily Beast has asked the DHS for clarification on the data collection it already performs as well as its "enhanced capabilities" via its connection to the Intelligence Community. The agency has yet to comment on Glawe's cryptic, but worrisome, response to Congressional questions. There's a good chance any answers provided will be just as cryptic and/or composed mainly of non-denial denials. This administration has made border security a priority. This is the ideal environment for expanding the IC to include immigration agencies. And once they're in, they'll stay in, no matter who's running the White House in the future.
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Filed Under: cbp, dhs, ice, intelligence, intelligence community, law enforcement, surveillance
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Not subject to law or oversight apparently
Since these agencies like to ignore the law and do their own thing, isn't it time that they have their budgets stripped and are removed from the chain all together? If a company was doing this it would be declared illegal and everything coming from it would be used as evidence of their malfeasance. Being part of the government means nothing if you can't be trusted to answer basic questions about what you use and what you don't use. They are nothing more than glorified security guards who have grabbed access to the most secret data possible and are leveraging that to give themselves even more access.
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Re: Not subject to law or oversight apparently
Security Guards at least provide some security.
This collective of malfeasance is nothing more than an occupying power with zero accountability outside the opaque confines of their hierarchy.
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Re: Not subject to law or oversight apparently
I guess it's news for you that the mega-corporations ARE "doing this"! Did you totally miss a guy named Ed Snowden who six years ago now informed that seven major US corporations, especially GOOGLE, give NSA "direct access"? -- Amazon too is totally embedded with "gov't". Was paid 600 million by CIA apparently for propaganda in its property the Wash Post, and billions in AWS defense contracts.
So, they are "doing this", and NO, it's NOT used against them, in fact they're almost immune to law and accountability by legislators, and esp anti-trust.
The big corporations, Facebook and Google explicitly, are little more than commercial fronts for MASS SPYING. -- But "intelligence agencies" don't miss even minor outlets for paid propaganda: their budgets are practically unlimited -- and it includes spreading favorable views or NOT mentioning how pervasive they are already -- it's not even a matter of effectiveness, they don't care with unlimited budget, need only to be sure that a given propagandist won't turn on them.
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Re: Re: Not subject to law or oversight apparently
)I guess it's news for you that the mega-corporations ARE "doing this"! Did you totally miss a guy named Ed Snowden who six years ago now informed that seven major US corporations, especially GOOGLE, give NSA "direct access"? -- Amazon too is totally embedded with "gov't". Was paid 600 million by CIA apparently for propaganda in its property the Wash Post, and billions in AWS defense contracts.
Aren't you blaming Amazon for what the NSA is doing? Snowden revealed that these companies are obeying the CIA/NSA requests - which would be un-lawful for them to refuse.
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Re: Re: Re: Not subject to law or oversight apparently
Exactly. The evil is still sourced from the "intelligence community".
Blame Amazon, Google and all the others for whatever they've done wrong but this isn't on that list. Tangentially, perhaps they've collected data they shouldn't have which the government avails itself of at any opportunity. Giving the data to the government isn't where they went wrong though.
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Re: Not subject to law or oversight apparently
"If a company was doing this it would be declared illegal and everything coming from it would be used as evidence of their malfeasance."
Actually - no, not necessarily. Companies get away with many things.
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Fridge Brilliance/Paranoia
This densely-worded flow of contradictions has raised concerns in the civil liberties community. (It should raise concerns elsewhere, but it almost always starts here.) What it sounds like is potentially-unlawful domestic surveillance.
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Re: Paranoia
it should be obvious that U.S. foreign intelligence/surveillance agencies and domestic surveillance/policing agencies are morphing into into one coordinated super surveillance/police agency similar to the KGB in USSR ("Committee for State Security").
None of the leadership in Republican or Democratic Parties is even slightly concerned about this.
Even mavericks like Bernie Sanders an AOC are oblivious to it.
Joe Biden and Trump love the way our police state is growing.
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Re: Re: Paranoia
"None of the leadership in Republican or Democratic Parties is even slightly concerned about this. Even mavericks like Bernie Sanders an AOC are oblivious to it."
You seem rather sure of your assumptions. How would one know what you claim to have knowledge of?
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Re: Re: Re: Paranoia
that's a weak and vacuous slam.
All you have to do is name just one person in Republican/Democrat leadership who is raising alarm about the American police state.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Paranoia
Wyden comes to mind. No one seams to listen.
Are their others?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Paranoia
and maybe Rand Paul. But Wyden and Paul are more isolated party mavericks than main party leadership
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Paranoia
So you admit to not knowing what you previously claimed?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Paranoia
sorry- I'm not the same AC- should have differentiated myself as such.
is anyone other then Wyden complaining about the surveillance issues?
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Perhaps instead of adding more kids to the adult table, we should take the beer away from our uncles, who keep trying to catch us naked in the shower, and tell them to sober up & act like Uncles and not clowns putting on dog and pony shows to show us how wonderful they are & to overlook them puking on the dog and what they did to that poor poor pony.
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Re: that poor, poor pony
The Mexican pony, right?
After all his "hard" work....ICE let him back into the country because he works for them as an informant, but the nameless woman on meth with the swinging double DDs, she got sent back.
But the video is still out there...somewhere....
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I welcome them to the Intelligence Community table...
... the instant they demonstrate "intelligence" or even "common sense" in doing their job.
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Re: I welcome them to the Intelligence Community table...
Never invoke common sense for it hardly if ever equates to good sense.
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ICE has been vying to become the SS for some time now.
They're not just Trump's goon squad but also have served as Apple's and the RIAA's / MPAA's (in New Zealand!).
And they seem gleeful to ignore human rights, eager to commit atrocities when managing the people they've detained along the Mexican border.
This whole thing smacks of Barbarossa.
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Re: ICE has been vying to become the SS for some time now.
...your analysis is usually excellent, until you devolve into partisan smears.
Bush did it, Obama did it, Trump does it too (and Hillary would have made Bush look like a lib-left flagbearer on these surveillance Stasi issues).
The sad reality is that partisanship is what has enabled these abuses in the first place, whether its immigration, or surveillance, or torture, etc.
We have no real left anymore due to identitarians on both sides, and throwing Trumps name into a post is just banal, even to please the ADL/SPLC/SOROS autoflaggers and deplatformers at TD.
I would like to hear more about your thoughts on New Zealand, and Peter Thiels Palantir held wide open to RIAA, etc. private contractors
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missionary position creep
Keep in mind that targeted individuals of organized stalking by these self-styled IC agencies have been discussing these exact mission creeps for well over two decades; and that MSM widely mocked their accounts, because “first they came for the....."
Then, whistle blowers like Julia Davis of DHS actually had blackhelicopters literally flying in front of her house, as DHS "investigated”her 49 times.
Or Andy Ostrowski, who took on Penn State pedophiles, and former DHS head Tom Ridge suddenly came down with a case of OGS, including what is called in the IC a "honeynet" trap scheme in the form of a nutty girlfriend.
And all of those mass shooters whose web pages get scrubbed the day after the shooting, so that the public never gets to see the extent of the psychological/influence operations waged on them from Fusion Centers, private contractors, JTRIG/DITU/ROU and Israeli Squad 3200.
But targeted individuals have been discussing this MHCHAOS 2.0 for decades:
https://researchorganizedgangstalking.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/gang-stalking-dhs-and-law-en forcement/
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