Nice CIA folks in the field offices of those nice FBI folks ...

OK. So this is the one I mentioned about the CIA having a CIA person camped out at each of the 56 field offices of the FBI. I've only chatted with one FBI person my entire life and he was quite cool -- he was the dude who came to speak at my library. Mind you he was also the guy who wouldn't come to talk about what I wanted him to talk about. He would only come to talk about what the FBI wanted to talk about. All the same, he came to my little library and he was quite nice. I would want him to bust in if I were locked in someone's basement. I can't say that I would want anyone from the CIA to show up. I might be better off locked in that basement, depending on what the CIA had planned. Like would they fly me away in a secret plane and keep me arrested for six years without charging me? Would I languish in prison and go insane from being waterboarded etcetera? Anyway! Here is the story that you may have missed. Oh, and the reason I mentioned the FBI guy who I mentioned above -- the guy who is the reason why I always (sort of) give the FBI a break (yes, the guy who came to my library kind of makes me love the FBI more often than not, although his new boss has not responded to my nice letter of welcome) was because I asked him if he could get the CIA person in his office to come speak at the library and he looked at me like he thought I was on crack. I still am going to hit him up one of these days to ask the CIA person in his office to come and speak. Because that other CIA person in the beltway who called me finally after my second letter was totally unhelpful and I am on a mission to get a CIA person to cross the threshold into a public library for a purpose other than narcing out a patron of Middle Eastern descent. (Look for me to post that CIA woman's direct line again here very soon.) Anyway! Here is the story:

CIA Ramps Up Presence at FBI Offices

By John J. Lumpkin
Associated Press
23 October 2002

WASHINGTON -- The CIA is increasing its presence at FBI field offices by assigning intelligence officers to domestic anti-terrorism teams, officials said Wednesday.

The goal is to have at least one CIA officer at each of the 56 FBI field offices in the United States, a U.S. intelligence official said. The officers are being drawn from both the agency's analytical and operational branches.

They serve as conduits of information, providing the FBI and local police distilled intelligence that the CIA and other services have collected overseas, officials said. At the same time, information gathered by local law enforcement on potential terrorist activities is sent to CIA headquarters.

"This increased cooperation is crucial in the fight against terrorism, and the role of the agency is to provide intelligence information to law enforcement authorities," said CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield.

The practice, which started on a small scale before Sept. 11, follows an FBI effort to station more of its agents on CIA territory: overseas. For several years, the FBI has assigning agents as legal attaches to U.S. embassies, the traditional home of clandestine CIA officers.

The CIA officers at the FBI field offices will not be employed in the field, officials said. As a foreign intelligence agency, the CIA has been severely restricted in what it can do inside the United States since the mid-1970s, when Congress enacted reforms to prevent the agency from spying on Americans.

The expanded CIA domestic counterterrorism effort is separate from a second, more secretive CIA operation in several U.S. cities. At these, intelligence officers interview American businessmen and scholars returning from overseas and try to recruit sources among foreigners who are returning to their home countries.

One such CIA office was at the World Trade Center when it was destroyed by terrorists during the Sept. 11 attacks, but no agency personnel were killed. The CIA is also believed to be expanding its operations at several of these domestic offices. The CIA and FBI came under fire for not cooperating on terrorism matters, particularly before the attacks. Since Sept. 11, some critics have called for a new emphasis on domestic intelligence-gathering, using a system similar to that employed by the British intelligence services. Others, however, fear a domestic spying effort will ultimately erode Americans' civil liberties. In recent congressional hearings on the Sept. 11 attacks, the directors of the FBI and CIA both said their agencies have improved cooperation.

"We are also working to extend the good cooperation we have built between our chiefs of station and legal attaches overseas to a system of cooperation between CIA and FBI field offices in the United States," CIA Director George J. Tenet said.

The agencies also share counterterrorism officers between their respective headquarters.