Secretive CIFA spy unit: Closed or Outsourced?

[cascadiance]

Some new news out that the CIFA spy unit that was doing a lot of domestic spying with its big database of demonstrators, etc. that was headed up by David Burtt and Joseph Hefferon who both suddenly quit at the same time in August of 2007. A lot of stuff doesn't sound like it's being explained very well, but it looks rather suspicious the way they are trying to "quietly close the blinds" on this. I think this may be worth watching more closely where possible! Kind of hard to only pick a few main paragraphs to put in the summary here. It's worth reading more closely. It looks like they are trying to even further "outsource" it more than it already extensively has been and keep it more out of ours and congressional scrutiny. These guys have been linked to the whole Duke Cunningham/Porter Goss/Dusty Foggo MZM-gate mess too.

From:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8550

Secretive Pentagon Spy Unit: Closed or Outsourced?

by Tom Burghardt

Global Research, April 4, 2008
Antifascist Calling.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that the Pentagon is "expected to shut a controversial intelligence office that has drawn fire from lawmakers and civil liberties groups who charge that it was part of an effort by the Defense Department to expand into domestic spying."

The Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), created by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after the September 11 attacks, illegally conducted broad domestic operations that targeted antiwar and other dissident domestic groups.

...

When CIFA's two top officials, David A. Burt II and his deputy, Joseph Hefferon abruptly resigned in August 2006, Pentagon officials were quick to deny any link to on-going corruption investigations, claiming their departure was "a personal decision that they both made together," according to The Washington Post.

...

But a new batch of documents released on Tuesday to the ACLU, revealed that CIFA was coordinating its activities with the FBI, issuing hundreds of national security letters to banks and credit agencies to obtain financial records in "terrorism and espionage investigations."

...

As with other shut-downs of controversial Pentagon projects, notably former Admiral John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness spy operation, CIFA's successor will undoubtedly burrow ever-deeper within the DoD's opaque bureaucracy--with plenty of assistance from well-heeled security firms--and little oversight from a supine Congress.