the opinionist

Domestic surveillance of citizens and residents within the United States has and will always remain an uncomfortable and highly controversial practice. Outsourcing domestic surveillance and intelligence gathering to paid contractors based in the U.K. using Jordanian nationals? This should raise more red flags than a Chairman Mao Zedong anniversary parade!

A reliable source has suggested the U.S. government paid a Jordanian contractor – fluent in Arabic – to infiltrate the extensive Arab-American community in Dearborn, Mich. The objective: to gain the trust of specific individuals and groups within the Arab community – both U.S. citizens and immigrants – and report back valuable information, such as the opinions of, or sympathy for, Muslim fundamentalists. The contractor - a Christian Jordanian – used the guise of a Muslim academic researching the Arab-American community to gain the trust and access to the mosques and homes of targeted Muslims living in this Midwest community.

Unfortunately, the hired contractor, now residing in Jordan, politely refrained from commenting on his report though, conspicuously, he did not deny the story. Without confirmation, the story remains dubious and without merit or credibility – which is a shame because there are many unanswered questions. Which U.S. intelligence agency contracted out the work? Why was the work contracted? What decisions were made based on acquired intelligence?

Further digging may help uncover some of the answers but perhaps some of the components of the story are not without precedence.

In December 2005, The New York Times broke the now-infamous story on the National Security Agency and its eavesdropping – of e-mail, telephone conversations, and postal services - between U.S. citizens and foreign nationals inside the United States, bypassing Congressional oversight and the judicial warrant process.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act made it illegal to spy on U.S. citizens in the United States without the approval of a special surveillance court.

National Security Letters – quiet subpoenas that demand the production of records or data on groups or individuals - require no probable cause or judicial permissions and are the modus operandi of U.S. intelligence agencies otherwise blocked from domestic intelligence activities. This fortunate and highly fragrant bureaucracy-avoider has enabled the C.I.A., military intelligence, and other agencies to operate surreptitiously inside the U.S. against subjects – people or groups – deemed national security threats.

The deportation of non-U.S. citizens with possible, and often highly dubious, ties to terrorist groups have resulted in dozens of stories of the interrogation and subsequent torture by eager foreign governments. It is important to note that there is no evidence of rendition in this article.

The last, and perhaps the most important, question is why would the U.S. government outsource domestic surveillance of the Arab-American community to foreign nationals? The media frequently reports on the U.S. government’s inability to recruit capable and security-cleared fluent Arabic-speaking employees – and yet an intelligence agency would pay cash to a foreign contractor domiciled in a Middle Eastern nation that embraces the notion of Muslim fundamentalism under the guise of the Muslim Brotherhood?

It is reported that the intelligence community is enjoying a post-9/11 boom not seen since the lofty days of the Cold War. As the plethora of intelligence agencies scramble to find articulate, security-cleared, and wholly attractive applicants to fill newly created positions – many tasks have been filled by a wave of outsourced contractors. Mother Jones reports “of the estimated $40 billion the United States is expected to spend on intelligence this year, … at least 50 percent will go to private contractors.”

How can this be applied to domestic intelligence gathering? This doesn’t make much sense unless you presuppose the ambiguity and flexibility this affords the U.S. intelligence community when an oversight committee picks up the stench of domestic spying. What’s next? Outsource the 3 a.m. wake up by jack-booted suits and a first-class ticket to Damascus?

Posted on April 10th, 2007 under Arab Americans, CIA, Cold War, Domestic Spying, Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood, NSA, patriot act •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback