Pentagon intelligence employees raise concerns about supporting domestic surveillance amid protests

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https://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-intelligence-employees-raise-concerns-about-supporting-domestic-surveillance-amid-protests-194906537.html

The use of military personnel has prompted questions about overreach, including now at the Defense Intelligence Agency. During a weekly unclassified virtual town hall on Wednesday hosted by DIA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, agency employees questioned whether they could be placed on a task force, reassigned, detailed to another agency, or otherwise ordered to support domestic intelligence efforts to investigate protesters, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

According to one of those sources, who was briefed on what happened during the town hall, a DIA employee submitted a written question asking: “We have been told that DIA is setting up a task force on ‘unrest’ in our country. Is this true? Is it legal given intelligence oversight? What options will there be for employees who are morally opposed to such an effort?”

Director Ashley, according to that source, responded that “our core mission is foreign intelligence.”

He went on, however, to cite the example of foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election, which did become a major focus across the U.S. intelligence community. “Consider the election space — we don’t have a domestic position but have a dedicated effort to see what is happening globally,” he said. “There is a DOD aspect, but we are focused on the foreign nexus.”

Ashley told employees the Office of the General Counsel had reviewed the issue to ensure that DIA was in compliance with the law.

“If you ever find yourself in a position that makes you uncomfortable, I am your top cover,” he added.

That answer, however, did not assuage some DIA employees, who were concerned Ashley’s response did not address whether their work or the agency’s resources might be shifted to support domestic intelligence efforts or whether a task force is indeed being assembled. “It’s very scary,” said the first source.

It was not immediately clear who may have considered having DIA employees work on monitoring domestic unrest, or under what authority, since there has been no evidence that those involved in the protests — or in criminal activity that has taken place amid the protests — have any links to foreign groups.

However, the second source said that the employees might be asked to support “mission requirements” for law enforcement. “Almost the entire workforce is against it, because it is not their mission,” the second source, who questioned the legality of it, told Yahoo News.

James M. Kudla, a DIA spokesman, said the agency has not taken a role in domestic affairs. “The mission of the Defense Intelligence Agency is to provide intelligence on foreign militaries to prevent and win wars,” he wrote in a statement to Yahoo News. “Any claims that DIA has taken on a domestic mission are false. DIA has not established any task force related to the current domestic situation,” he continued.

Kudla did confirm that DIA has set up “an internal coordination group to respond to increased and appropriate Department requests for information.”

But the tumult at DIA over that internal coordination group could further inflame tensions within the Pentagon over the department’s proper role in policing the protests that have sprung up nationwide in response to Floyd’s death.