That specific element of the program, which has been in place for years, was paused last year because of internal concerns. DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which runs the program, uses it to gather information about threats to the U.S., including transnational drug trafficking and organized crime. But the fact that this low-profile office is collecting intelligence by questioning people in the U.S. is virtually unknown.
The inner workings of the program — called the “Overt Human Intelligence Collection Program” — are described in the large tranche of internal documents POLITICO reviewed from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. Those documents and additional interviews revealed widespread internal concerns about legally questionable tactics and political pressure. The documents also show that people working there fear punishment if they speak out about mismanagement and abuses.
The Overt Human Intelligence Collection Program’s office is very shady and it is run like a corrupt government, which is what we have under Joe Biden. Employees say they have seen so many red flags that they want DHS to pay for legal liability insurance.
Carrie Bachner, a former DHS undersecretary for intelligence, told Politico that if the program is used to question citizens without their lawyers, it is immoral. And what is voluntary? If you refuse to talk to them, does your house or business get raided by thirty FBI agents armed with automatic weapons? Voluntary and the weaponized government of Joe Biden just do not go together.
Bachner said:
“I don’t know any counsel in their right mind that would sign off on that, and any member of Congress that would say, ‘That’s OK. If these people are out there interviewing folks that still have constitutional privileges, without their lawyer present, that’s immoral.”
“What do they do with that information they collect, and is it legal? Where do they store that information?”
Politico reported a major theme in the internal documents was that many program, employees worried they were breaking the law, which raised disputes about how United States law applies to the program’s interactions with Americans.
3 Responses
Mayorkas the jerk/joke.
DHS under Obama and now his hand puppet Biden has become an enemy of patriots citizens more and more and defender of foreign terrorist
For those who have been paying attention, it was always suspected that the so-called Patriot Act and its many aspects were actually designed to monitor and control legal US citizens.