The Washington Post reported Sunday that the Pentagon is undertaking a variety of measures to expand its domestic intelligence gathering. According to the article the White House is considering expanding the power of a relatively unknown Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA). A new proposal by a presidential commission is seeking to transform CIFA from an office coordinating security efforts into one that has the authority to investigate crimes committed within the United States including treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage, and economic espionage. Additionally, the Pentagon is pushing for legislation that would create an exception in the Privacy Act that would allow the FBI and other government agencies to share information about US citizens with the Pentagon, CIA, and other intelligence agencies as long as the data meets the vague qualification of being related to foreign intelligence.

Democratic Party Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has warned that “we are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing.” However, others have pointed out there has been a steady trend towards militarizing the country with the upcoming renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act, removal of “due process” procedures in the Jose Padilla case, and President George W. Bush’s recent creation of the National Clandestine Service which will “expand reporting of information and intelligence value from state, local and tribal law enforcement entities and private sector stakeholders” and gives the CIA the authority to operate within the United States.