From: Brad Dolan 
Subject: CIA is watching you
Message-ID: 
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 22:39:58 -0400 (EDT)

AP reported on 10/20/95:

  The law is clear: No spying by the CIA within the United States
  and its territories. But the agency kept a close watch on the
  domestic mischief of Andrew, Opal and Marilyn.

  Andrew, Opal and Marilyn were hurricanes and the CIA used skills
  honed in Cold War spying to help disaster relief agencies.

[My how cute.  Little Andrew, Opal, and Marilyn were only hurricanes.]

  When Marilyn struck the U.S. Virgin Islands in September, the CIA
  was able to give the Federal Emergency Management Agency a speedy
  assessment of the damage. Which roads were blocked, where was the
  greatest damage to housing, which areas were flooded.

  "It's the kind of information we provide to the Department of Defense
  in military situations," said Connie Miller, head of the CIA's
  disaster response team. "It's one of the things we're good at."

[I'll bet.  What else are you good at?  Assassination?
Drug smuggling?  Disinformation?]

  Miller and officials from FEMA talked about the CIA role in disaster
  relief Thursday, but she was careful to avoid revealing the methods
  the agency wants to keep secret.

  "I really can't get into a lot of detail about how collection works,"
  she said. She said the agency uses the same techniques it applies to
  assessing the battlefields of Bosnia or the Persian Gulf. They include
  aerial reconnaissance from satellites and planes and what is picked up
  from HUMINT, the spy business shorthand for human intelligence.

  In the case of natural disasters, the HUMINT element involves
  collecting and analyzing information from the scene, news reports and
  what people are saying on the Internet.


[Now, watch closely!]

  Natural disasters are an exception to the legal ban on domestic
  activity by the CIA.

[But if they "accidentally" learn useful stuff about you while
gathering data about natural disasters, there are several nice
loopholes that allow them to use it against you.]

  Sensitive to concerns about any domestic activity by the CIA,
  officials said more than once that when FEMA asks the CIA for help,
  the request is first scrutinized by the relief agency's lawyers and
  then is run by CIA legal counsel to make sure it is allowed under
  federal law.

[Probably the same kind of scrutiny the military lawyers applied before
deciding Posse Comitatus didn't prevent them from helping with a little
baby-killing at Waco.]

  Mike Chalmers, a FEMA intelligence officer, said that when an
  earthquake struck Southern California in January 1994, CIA analysts
  came up with the fact that 23 languages were spoken in the hardest-hit
  area, information essential for communicating with victims.

[Wait!  If they aren't spying on Americans, how did they know?]

  Chalmers said his agency has access to a wide range of sources. "I can
  call up the Air Force and say I need a U-2 spy plane," he said. In
  that case, the photos would be shipped to the CIA for analysis.


[Does it make anybody else nervous that FEMA can just call the USAF and
the CIA and ask for little spy mission over Main Street?]


  The best available examples of what this cooperation produces are
  computer-generated maps that use color codes to show the areas of
  greatest damage.

[Or where the pot plants are?   Or who has added on to his house
without a building permit?  Limitless possibilities!]

  A map of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands right after it was hit by
  Hurricane Marilyn in September showed areas of devastation as bright red
  and heavy damage as violet. The map noted that the runways at Harry S
  Truman Airport were clear of debris.

  A map of Florida's Miramar Beach area after it was hit by Hurricane Opal
  pinpointed flooding in dark blue and noted where a shorefront road was
  washed out and where another was blocked by sand and a third by debris.
  The map also showed the location of hospitals, churches and schools.

[And the troublemakers?]

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