FBI in Talks to Extend Reach (LA Times)

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fbi28jan28,0,4505012.story?coll=la-home-headlines

FBI in Talks to Extend Reach

Some past and present CIA officials see the bureau's push to change the ground rules of intelligence gathering as a threat to their agency.

By Richard B. Schmitt and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — The FBI is significantly expanding its intelligence-gathering activities in the U.S., including stepped-up efforts to collect and report intelligence on foreign figures and governments, a function that long has been principally the CIA's domain, intelligence and congressional sources said Thursday.

The bureau in December launched discussions with top CIA officials to rewrite the two-decade-old ground rules covering how the agencies conduct their intelligence efforts in the U.S. and abroad. That effort reflects an acceleration of the FBI's foreign-intelligence collection efforts in the U.S. in recent months, as well as the desire of top bureau officials to assert what they view as their legal duty to track CIA activities in the U.S. and coordinate with the agency's operations.

The moves are causing concern among some current and former CIA officials, who see them as another sign of the diminished standing of the beleaguered agency, which also is confronted by recent Pentagon moves to increase its military intelligence collections abroad.

The CIA was singled out for harsh treatment by the independent panel that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks, and is undergoing painful restructuring under new leadership. Some worry that new Director Porter J. Goss is not doing enough to fight off the bureau's push.

more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fbi28jan28,0,4505012.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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