checklist, inviting a president-elect to inquire and learn more.
We have considered proposals for a new agency dedicated to intelligence col-
lection in the United States. Some call this a proposal for an "American MI-
5," although the analogy is weak--the actual British Security Service is a
relatively small worldwide agency that combines duties assigned in the U.S.
government to the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the CIA, the FBI, and
the Department of Homeland Security.
demand around the country for FBI help on criminal matters. The FBI was
criticized, rightly, for the overzealous domestic intelligence investigations dis-
closed during the 1970s.The pendulum swung away from those types of inves-
tigations during the 1980s and 1990s, though the FBI maintained an active
counterintelligence function and was the lead agency for the investigation of
foreign terrorist groups operating inside the United States.
strong national intelligence center, part of the NCTC, that will oversee coun-
terterrorism intelligence work, foreign and domestic, and to create a National
Intelligence Director who can set and enforce standards for the collection, pro-
cessing, and reporting of information.
employees to collect intelligence in America's cities and towns--interviewing
informants, conducting surveillance and searches, tracking individuals, work-
ing collaboratively with local authorities, and doing so with meticulous atten-
tion to detail and compliance with the law.The FBI's job in the streets of the
United States would thus be a domestic equivalent, operating under the U.S.
Constitution and quite different laws and rules, to the job of the CIA's opera-
tions officers abroad.
ligence agency were outside of the Department of Justice, the process
of legal oversight--never easy--could become even more difficult.