Counterintelligence Field Activity (DACA's Parent Unit) Expected to Be Closed

[George W. Maschke]

Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times reports that the Department of Defense's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), of which the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment (DACA, the polygraph school formerly known as the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute that trains all federal polygraph operators) is a component, is expected to be disbanded. This does not entail that DACA will be going away, but rather that it may become aligned with a new parent agency:

April 2, 2008
Pentagon Is Expected to Close Intelligence Unit
By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON — 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 move, government officials say, is part of a broad effort under Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to review, overhaul and, in some cases, dismantle an intelligence architecture built by his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The intelligence unit, called the Counterintelligence Field Activity office, was created by Mr. Rumsfeld after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as part of an effort to counter the operations of foreign intelligence services and terror groups inside the United States and abroad.

Yet the office, whose size and budget is classified, came under fierce criticism in 2005 after it was disclosed that it was managing a database that included information about antiwar protests planned at churches, schools and Quaker meeting halls.

The Pentagon's senior intelligence official, James R. Clapper, has recommended to Mr. Gates that the counterintelligence field office be dismantled and that some of its operations be placed under the authority of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the government officials said.

Pentagon officials said Mr. Gates had yet to approve the recommendation.

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