4 ms·
Out of curiosity, what's the official perspective anyway? Is the CIA legally entitled to conduct such activities within US borders? In some countries like Germ
by JohnStrange 10y ago
Out of curiosity, what's the official perspective anyway? Is the CIA legally entitled to conduct such activities within US borders?
In some countries like Germany the foreign intelligence agency is not allowed to gather intelligence in their own country, only a separate counter-intelligence agency may, so I'm wondering whether this is the same in the US or not. Theoretically speaking, of course.
- s_q_b 10y agoThe CIA's statutory mandate is limited to foreign intelligence. Virtually everything the CIA does within US borders is illegal.
- mcherm 10y agoIt is only your opinion that those actions are illegal. They would only be ACTUALLY illegal if a court ruled them to be illegal, but litigating these activities would be a threat to national security so a court must not review them. Since they cannot be ruled illegal, the activities are therefore fully legal. Besides, some official once wrote up a highly twisted set of definitions that claimed it was legal, and that is sufficient justification. Now shut up and quit griping about this obsolete document called "the constitution". . . . (In case it wasn't obvious...) </scarcasm>
- pessimizer 10y agoIt's been ruled legal to target Americans if they drive a Japanese car, or have ever watched a movie with subtitles.
- dalke 10y agoThe Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 added the exception for Americans who are hard of hearing and watch American-made movies subtitled in English.
- matt_wulfeck 10y agoDo you have any case law that backs this up?
- s_q_b 10y agoYes, it's well established. See below, in subsection dealing with activities within the United States. https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap5_Authority.pdf https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockC...
- matt_wulfeck 10y agoWell this is my sad TIL for the day.
- JohnStrange 10y agoThanks for the info. So it's the same system as in Germany, which makes sense given that the German system was essentially built by the US. (The BND was essentially founded by the CIA, which was also very new at that time, in cooperation with West German authorities.)
- Bartweiss 10y agoThe CIA is nominally restricted to foreign intelligence, but edge cases reliably go in the broad-purview direction. US citizens abroad and foreign citizens at home are both fair game, as are US citizens at home who deal with suspicious foreigners, and US citizens at home who are caught up inadvertently in foreign-targeting efforts. There really is a division of agencies; when it was time to catch the Unabomber, the FBI did all the work on that. But if it deals with anti-government activities or any international connection, foreign surveillance can usually find a legal justification to get involved.