FBI concentrates on intelligence?!!!

From Secrecy News:

THE FBI AS AN INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATION

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has increasingly
supplemented its traditional law enforcement role with new intelligence
and counterterrorism functions, now says its paramount objective is to
"prevent, disrupt, and defeat terrorist operations before they occur."

New domestic intelligence collection activities that have been adopted
in pursuit of this goal are described in unusual detail in the Bureau's
2008 budget request.

http://fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fbi/2008just.pdf

Special attention is given to cultivating human intelligence sources.

"The FBI recruits new CHSs [confidential human sources] every day," the
budget request notes. But without increased budget support, the FBI
says it will not be possible to validate these sources and to determine
the credibility of the information they provide.

"With current resources, the FBI is unable to reach a point where all
CHSs are successfully subjected to the CHSV [confidential human source
validation] process."

The budget request refers in passing to "more than 15,000" confidential
human sources requiring validation (page 4-24).

The FBI also seeks new funds for intelligence collection training and
operations.

"Without this training, the FBI would lack the full capacity to provide
SAs [special agents] the comprehensive tradecraft, procedural, legal and
policy direction needed to execute the significant and constitutionally
sensitive domestic intelligence collection mission with confidence,"
the budget document states (page 4-27).

The FBI's budgetary focus on expanding its human intelligence
capability was first reported by Justin Rood of ABC News. See "FBI
Proposes Building Network of U.S. Informants," July 25:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/fbi-proposes-bu.html

The same FBI budget document provides significant new detail on other
FBI intelligence and counterterrorism activities, the FBI open source
program, the National Virtual Translation Center, and other
initiatives.

The Washington Post reported that there were nearly 20,000 positive
matches of individuals seeking to enter the United States who were
flagged by the Terrorist Screening Center, according to the FBI budget
request. Despite the surprisingly large figure, only a small number of
arrests resulted.

See "Terror Suspect List Yields Few Arrests" by Ellen Nakashima,
Washington Post, August 25:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402256.html

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