U.S. Readies Aggressive Counterintelligence Plan

David Morgan, Reuters:

The Bush administration has adopted a new counterintelligence strategy that calls for pre-emptive action against foreign intelligence services viewed as threats to U.S. national security, officials said on Saturday. read more

The first national U.S. counterintelligence strategy, which President Bush approved on March 1, aims to combat intelligence services from countries hungry for U.S. military and nuclear secrets, such as China and Iran, both at home and abroad, counterintelligence officials said.

Officials at a counterintelligence conference at Texas A&M University described the strategy as an extension of the post-Sept. 11 foreign policy initiative known as the Bush doctrine, which calls for pre-emptive action against nations and extremist groups perceived as threats to the United States.

"The United States has become the No. 1 target for the intelligence collection of other nations," said John Quattrocki, a senior U.S. counterintelligence official.

"What we'd like to do with the counterintelligence program is what we've done with counterterrorism, which is take the fight to other guy's back yard and exploit and interdict where we can, and at home, interdict where we must."

The strategy is due to be released to the public as an unclassified document in coming days.

Officials said the plan aims to protect U.S. intelligence and information systems from foreign agents including al Qaeda by integrating counterintelligence through a recently formed agency called the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive.

Counterintelligence efforts are currently dispersed across the 15 agencies that make up the intelligence community.

"We have a great deal of bilateral cooperation between agencies. But we need strategically orchestrated operations directed against prioritized foreign intelligence threats," said National Counterintelligence Executive Michelle Van Cleave, who will oversee the plan.

REVITALIZE COUNTERINTELLIGENCE

Former intelligence officials described the strategy as an attempt to revitalize counterintelligence after years of neglect and demoralization following notorious espionage cases including CIA agent Aldrich Ames and FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who were both caught spying for the former Soviet Union.

"Today we are at war and the potential harm to this country from intelligence losses is far more immediate," said Van Cleave.

The strategy marks a departure from a long-standing counterintelligence practice of waiting for foreign-sponsored agents to act against intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

"Instead of being willing to take a punch and be damaged, we in fact take the skills of counterintelligence and ... impose damage on other intelligence services," explained Quattrocki, a top aide to Van Cleave.

He declined to identify countries seen as potential targets. But other officials cited China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Libya as nations that have tried to collect U.S. secrets through means including cyber espionage.

Van Cleave's office produced the new strategy with input from the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon and other agencies.

A former top intelligence official said the strategy offered an opportunity to establish a much-needed cadre of officers to carry out investigations across the intelligence community.

Much of the implementation will depend on priorities set by John Negroponte, Bush's nominee for director of national intelligence.