Bush Aides Consider Domestic Spy Agency
by Paul Wolf, 17 September 2002
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 10:15:22 -0500
From: Paul Wolf <paulwolf@icdc.com>
Subject: Bush Aides Consider Domestic Spy Agency
1. Bush Aides Consider Domestic Spy Agency, The Washington Post,
Nov. 16, 2002
2. Bush Aides Consider Bolstering Domestic Spying, Reuters, Nov.
16, 2002
3. CIA Is Expanding Domestic Operations, The Washington Post,
October 23, 2002
4. Iraqis in U.S. to be monitored for terror threat, The New
York Times, Nov. 17, 2002
5. Congress strikes deal on independent commission on 9/11, The
Scotsman, Nov. 16, 2002
6. Specialty provisions threaten to sink homeland security bill,
Knight Ridder Newspapers, Nov. 17, 2002
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Bush Aides Consider Domestic Spy Agency
Concerns on FBI's Performance Spur Debate of Options
By Dana Priest and Dan Eggen, Washington Post, November 16, 2002
President Bush's top national security advisers have begun
discussing the creation of a new, domestic intelligence agency
that would take over responsibility for counterterrorism spying
and analysis from the FBI, according to U.S. government officials
and intelligence experts.
The high-level debate reflects a widespread concern that the FBI
has been unable to transform itself from a law enforcement agency
into an intelligence-gathering unit able to detect and thwart
terrorist plans in the United States. The FBI has admitted it has
not yet completed the cultural sea change necessary to turn its
agents into spies, but the creation of a new agency is firmly
opposed by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who has said he
believes the bureau can do the job.
On Veterans Day, top national security officials gathered for two
hours to discuss the issue in a meeting chaired by national
security adviser Condoleezza Rice. White House Chief of Staff
Andrew H. Card Jr., Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, CIA
Director George J. Tenet, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft,
Mueller and six others attended.
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge was recently dispatched to
London for a briefing on the fabled MI5, an agency empowered to
collect and analyze intelligence within Britain, leaving law
enforcement to the police. Similarly, if another agency were
created in the United States, it would not replace the FBI but
would have the primary role in gathering and analyzing
intelligence about Americans and foreign nationals in the United
States.
Revelations of the debate come amid heightened apprehension within
the U.S. intelligence community over the possibility of
large-scale terrorist strikes against the United States or Europe.
The FBI warned law enforcement agencies Thursday night that Osama
bin Laden's terror network may be plotting "spectacular" attacks
inside the United States. Some intelligence officials described
the threats as even more ominous than those picked up in the weeks
prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But the administration,
citing a lack of specific information about the time or place of
any attack, did not increase the national threat alert indicator
from yellow or "elevated" -- a status that means there is a
"significant" risk of terror attacks.
The FBI warning said "al Qaeda may favor spectacular attacks that
meet several criteria: high symbolic value, mass casualties,
severe damage to the U.S. economy and maximum psychological
trauma," adding that the highest priority targets were historic
landmarks, the nuclear sector, aviation and petroleum.
The alert came after the release of a new audiotape believed to be
made by bin Laden threatening the United States and its allies.
At a news conference, Rice responded to criticism from some Senate
Democrats that the war on terror was flagging and from foreign
officials that the war on Iraq would distract the administration
from its unfinished battle with al Qaeda.
Rice said that President Bush "does not begin his day on Iraq; he
begins his day on the war on terrorism."
"This is the central focus of this administration," she added.
U.S. officials also revealed yesterday that they had recently
captured a high-level al Qaeda member. They declined to identify
him but said he is among the top dozen al Qaeda fugitives sought
by the United States. It was not clear yesterday where the al
Qaeda leader was being held.
A Bush administration spokesman, who asked not to be named, said
no conclusions were reached about a domestic intelligence agency
during the Veterans Day meeting. He said an MI5-style agency was
just one option considered. The official, and other sources
knowledgeable about the issue, said the White House first wants to
launch a new Department of Homeland Security, which would include
an intelligence analysis division.
Any major change such as this would come later, government sources
said. More meetings on the subject are planned.
Some members of Congress have said they favor creating a domestic
security agency and it is likely legislative proposals will be
offered during the next Congress. "We're either going to create a
working, effective, substantial domestic intelligence unit in the
FBI or create a new agency," said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.),
ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
"The results are dismal to this point."
He said creating a whole new agency "would be a big-ticket item
from everyone's standpoint. We have to think this out carefully."
During the Veterans Day meeting, Mueller offered the same
arguments about the FBI's structure that he has made in testimony
on Capitol Hill, sources said. He has said the FBI is uniquely
positioned to act as the United States' primary domestic
intelligence agency, and that reforms implemented since the Sept.
11 attacks have made counterterrorism the bureau's primary goal.
But others in the meeting were not as convinced, citing the FBI's
progress to date and the inherent difficulties of retraining FBI
agents who are accustomed to restrictions on domestic spying and
prohibitions against gathering information on people who are not
suspected of committing crimes.
The bureau worked hard to snuff out similar proposals earlier this
year when the Homeland Security Department was first proposed.
But some former law enforcement officials such as George
Terwilliger, a top official in President George H.W. Bush's
Justice Department, advocate creating a domestic intelligence
agency that would combine FBI counterterror efforts with CIA and
military operations. Keeping foreign and domestic terrorism
intelligence operations separate is an "outdated notion," he said.
"Somebody needs to have ownership of the problem on a
government-wide basis."
A number of outside intelligence experts and blue-ribbon panels
recently have recommended radical overhauls of the United States'
domestic intelligence structure.
In a preliminary report released this week, an advisory commission
headed by former Virginia governor James S. Gilmore endorsed a new
counterterrorism center made up of analysts now working for the
CIA, FBI and other agencies. The center "would be responsible for
the fusion of intelligence, from all sources, foreign and
domestic, on potential attacks inside the United States," the
commission said.
Mueller met with Gilmore prior to the report's release to try to
persuade him not to recommend a separate intelligence agency,
sources said.
In October, a separate bipartisan panel of high-technology experts
and former intelligence officials recommended that the proposed
Homeland Security Department take over collection and analysis of
intelligence from the FBI. The Markle Foundation Task Force on
National Security in the Information Age found that "the FBI has
no effective process for providing intelligence on terrorism to
policymakers or others outside the law enforcement community."
The proposed Homeland Security Department, which was approved by
the House this week and is awaiting Senate approval, would include
a new analysis division that would receive and analyze terrorism-
related reports from the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and
other intelligence agencies. But the new department would not
collect intelligence data on its own and would not have access to
original information except in special circumstances,
administration officials have said.
I.C. Smith, a former FBI counterintelligence official, said there
is no need to create a new intelligence gathering agency outside
the FBI, or to turn over more duties to Homeland Security. Smith
and many other current and former FBI officials argue that the
bureau was renowned for its intelligence-gathering capabilities
during the Cold War, though abuses led to restrictions on the
bureau's powers.
"The FBI worked counterintelligence for decades and did it very,
very well overall," Smith said. "It was able to bridge that gap
between criminal investigations and intelligence operations. ...
The problem is not the structure; it's a failure of management to
implement the resources they have."
Staff writer Susan Schmidt contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2002 Washington Post
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Bush Aides Consider Bolstering Domestic Spying
By Adam Entous, Reuters, November 16, 2002
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is considering ways to
bolster domestic intelligence gathering to disrupt terrorist plans
in the United States, but brushed aside calls for the creation of
a new domestic spy agency as premature, administration officials
said on Saturday.
The talks among Bush's senior national security advisers come as
the administration prepares to set up a Department of Homeland
Security, which would include a division charged with analyzing
intelligence gathered by the FBI and other agencies.
"The administration is focused on setting up the information
analysis and critical infrastructure protection division of the
new Department of Homeland Security, as well as the restructuring
of the FBI toward a counterterrorism focus," said Gordon Johndroe,
a spokesman for the White House Office of Homeland Security.
But administration and congressional sources said Bush's advisers
were considering more sweeping changes to improve counterterrorism
spying once the new department is up and running, although they
denied a report in the Washington Post that Bush was seriously
considering setting up a new domestic intelligence agency modeled
after Britain's MI5 spy agency.
A congressional advisory panel headed by former Virginia Gov.
James Gilmore has called for a separate National Counter Terrorism
Center to consolidate analysis of information on international
terrorists and to take over intelligence gathering now done by the
FBI.
CIVIL LIBERTIES
While creating a domestic intelligence agency raises concerns of
infringing on civil liberties, Gilmore said the new agency would
operate under tight restraints to ensure "proper" intelligence
gathering.
In a sign the administration may be interested in the idea,
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge recently met with security
officials in London about the terrorism-fighting experience of
MI5, which has the power to collect and analyze intelligence
within Britain while leaving law enforcement to the police.
The Washington Post, which first reported deliberations at the
White House over a new domestic spying agency in its Saturday
edition, said the proposal reflected widespread concern that the
FBI has been unable to transform itself after the Sept. 11 attacks
into an intelligence-gathering unit that can prevent terrorist
actions in the United States.
But administration officials brushed aside the proposal, at least
for the time being.
"We are adding a new agency -- that is the Department of Homeland
Security -- to the intelligence community, and of course that
leads to discussions of how all these things fit together. But
there is nothing moving forward at this time with regards to a
'domestic spying agency,"' an administration official said.
Officials noted that changes were already under way within the
FBI.
Earlier this week, Bush asked Congress to free up $49 million for
the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force, created after the Sept.
11 attacks to keep alleged terrorists and their supporters out of
the United States while tracking, prosecuting and deporting those
already in the country.
But the administration may have trouble resisting calls for the
creation of a domestic spy agency if the FBI drags its feet on
reforms.
"There are misgivings about the idea of a new agency, but frankly
our commission doesn't seem to see any alternative," Gilmore told
a House Armed Services subcommittee this week.
"We're either going to create a working, effective, substantial
domestic intelligence unit in the FBI or create a new agency,"
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, told the Washington Post.
Copyright © 2002 Reuters
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CIA Is Expanding Domestic Operations
More Offices, More Agents With FBI
By Dana Priest, The Washington Post, October 23, 2002
The Central Intelligence Agency is expanding its domestic
presence, placing agents with nearly all of the FBI's 56 terrorism
task forces in U.S. cities, a step that law enforcement and
intelligence officials say will help overcome some of the
communications obstacles between the two agencies that existed
before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In many cities, according to local FBI special agents, the CIA
employees help plan daily operations and set priorities, as well
as share information about suspected foreigners and groups. They
do not, however, take part in operations or make arrests.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III recently described the new
arrangement as his answer to MI5, Britain's internal security
service. Unlike the CIA, MI5 is empowered to collect intelligence
within Britain and to act to disrupt domestic threats to British
national security. "It goes some distance to accomplishing what
the MI5 does," Mueller told a House-Senate intelligence panel last
week in describing the new CIA role in the FBI task forces.
Separately, the CIA is undertaking what one intelligence official
called a "concerted effort" to increase the number of case
officers working in the agency's domestic field offices. Those
offices, directed by the National Resources Division, are staffed
by officers from the clandestine service.
The CIA's domestic field offices recruit foreigners living
temporarily in the United States -- for example, scientists at
universities, diplomats at embassies and business executives -- to
work as agents for the CIA when they return home. They also
conduct voluntary debriefings of Americans, mainly business
executives and academics, who have recently returned from abroad.
The division also is responsible for handling some defectors and
for limited counterintelligence targeting.
In the mid-1980s, the agency maintained close to 35 field stations
in the United States. But over the last decade, budget cuts and
operational restrictions reduced the agency's domestic effort by
about 30 percent, according to one former high-ranking CIA
official. "They were in bad shape."
Since Sept. 11, the National Resources Division has been given
more money and some of its domestic offices have been reopened to
bring the number close to 30. "There is a concerted effort to
enhance that," said one administration official said.
The CIA's domestic division was created in 1963 to conduct
clandestine operations within the United States against foreign
targets, usually foreign spies and organizations. But the CIA no
longer conducts clandestine operations at home, in part because of
the 1973 intelligence overhaul that curbed spying on U.S. citizens
and enacted stricter oversight of covert operations. Since then,
too, the FBI has strictly limited the information it accepts from
the CIA, for fear of "tainting" ongoing domestic investigations
with information it is not allowed to use or, in some cases, even
possess.
While the new growth in the CIA's domestic work does not involving
spying, it does represent a significant step in integrating the
CIA's analytical capabilities with U.S. law enforcement efforts to
find and apprehend terrorist suspects.
"We are stepping into an area that is fraught with peril," said
Frederick Hitz, a former inspector general at the CIA. But Hitz
and other analysts applauded the effort.
The CIA's work on the FBI task forces "is a sign of the times,"
said Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate intelligence
committee. "The idea is to get all the intel and law enforcement
agencies that might be able to contribute to a coherent and
comprehensive plan against terrorist activities."
None of the growth in the CIA's domestic work has required changes
in law.
Under Executive Order 12333, signed by President Ronald Reagan,
the CIA is permitted to secretly collect "significant" foreign
intelligence within the United States if the collection effort is
not aimed at the domestic activities of U.S. citizens and
corporations.
Ellen Knowlton, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas
field office, called the CIA officers in her office "full and
active participants" in day-to-day operations. The exchange of
ideas among the FBI, the CIA and local law enforcement "is very
interactive," she said.
"You balance how you use them" with the potential for compromising
officers still under cover, said Joseph Billy Jr., special agent
in charge of the FBI's New York field office. "We reserve the
right for the CIA to make that call."
For this reason, the identities of CIA officers are often not
shared with local law enforcement officials who are detailed,
part-time, to work on the task forces. The CIA officers also
usually work in special parts of the larger task force building,
behind walls impenetrable to electronic eavesdropping.
In Oregon, Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeger said there remains a
deep distrust toward giving law enforcement or the CIA expanded
powers. Although he approves of the CIA presence, he said he
purposefully stays clear of the CIA officers.
"I know very little about them and I chose to keep it that way,"
he said. "The CIA is not a dirty word," he said. "They have roles
and responsibilities that certainly have shifted. I have a lot of
admiration for the organization."
While the CIA presence is new in many cities, the agency has
worked with local police departments for years in New York, New
Jersey and a handful of other locations. The New York joint
terrorism task force of 300 people from 21 agencies has had more a
dozen CIA officers for years.
The CIA is reluctant to talk about its new task force role, or its
domestic field offices. "This increased cooperation is critical in
the fight against terrorism," said CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield.
"It's critical to establish more and better linkages."
Copyright © 2002 Washington Post
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Iraqis in U.S. to be monitored for terror threat
By David Johnson and Don Van Natta Jr., New York Times, Nov. 17,
2002
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Bush administration has begun to monitor
Iraqis in the United States in an effort to identify potential
domestic terrorist threats posed by sympathizers of the Baghdad
regime, senior government officials said.
The previously undisclosed intelligence program involves tracking
thousands of Iraqi citizens and Iraqi-Americans with dual
citizenship who are attending U.S. universities or working at
private corporations and who might pose a risk in the event of a
U.S.-led war against Iraq, officials said.
Some of the targets of the operation are being electronically
monitored under the authority of national security warrants.
Others are being selected for recruitment as informants, the
officials said.
In the event of an U.S. attack on Iraq, officials would intensify
the mission through arrests and detentions of Iraqis or Iraq
sympathizers if they are believed to be planning terrorist
operations.
The government officials who confirmed the outlines of the program
did so in an apparent effort to rebut critics in Congress and
elsewhere who have complained in recent days that U.S.
intelligence agencies are failing in their war against terror.
Some Democratic senators have said the problems are demonstrated
by the government's inability to find Osama bin Laden and to
identify specific threats since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The domestic intelligence program is an addition to the
government's continuing effort since the attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon to identify citizens of Middle
Eastern countries who may represent a potential threat. Those
efforts have also been stepped up as the United States prepares
for the possibility of war.
Serious discussion
This week, federal authorities plan to begin interviewing Arab-
Americans, asking them to report suspicious activity related to
Iraq, a senior government official said.
The interviews will be voluntary, but in the past, such efforts
have been criticized by Arab-American groups. The FBI is planning
to meet with Arab-American civic leaders to explain aspects of the
operation, officials said.
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House Office of
Homeland Security, declined to comment on the surveillance
program, which is classified.
The effort by intelligence agencies, particularly the FBI, to
strengthen and expand their counterterrorism programs comes at a
time of serious discussion in Congress and in the Bush
administration about whether to create a domestic intelligence
agency like MI-5, the British agency that collects information
about internal threats.
Bush administration counterterrorism officials gathered on
Veteran's Day at a White House meeting directed by Condoleezza
Rice, the national security adviser, to discuss whether to relieve
the FBI of its domestic security responsibilities.
No one in the administration has formally proposed creating a
domestic intelligence agency. Several officials said taking some
responsibilities away from the FBI remained an uncertain prospect,
but they said a wide range of ideas was likely to be considered
with the creation of a Homeland Security Department.
Another part of the new intelligence operation involves a focused
effort to assess whether Saddam Hussein's regime has engaged in
any actions, through alliances with Middle Eastern terrorist
organizations or efforts to obtain weapons, that could threaten
the United States or its interests abroad.
The operation is also tracing the movement of money by the Iraqi
government, and organizations sympathetic with Iraq, around the
world.
The officials said the monitoring operation has not detected any
specific threats in the United States or overseas.
The operation draws on the experience of a smaller program that
was undertaken in the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991, a conflict that
resulted in little threat of terrorism in the United States.
During the war, the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) conducted thousands of interviews with Iraqis and
other Arab- Americans in the United States and investigated
hundreds of Iraqis who had entered the United States on visitor's
visas and who had not left when their entry permits expired.
A large number of government agencies are part of the new
operation, including the Pentagon, the FBI, the CIA, the INS, the
State Department and the National Security Agency, which
eavesdrops on communications around the world, officials said.
Officials said the operation would also step up monitoring of
Iraq's foreign intelligence service, which they believe operates
under diplomatic cover from Baghdad's mission at the United
Nations.
"This is the largest and most aggressive program like this we've
ever had," said one senior official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity. "We think we know who most of the bad guys are, but we
are going to be very proactive here and not take any chances."
Inadequate
Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who is departing as chairman
of the Intelligence Committee, said in an interview last week that
U.S. intelligence agencies, in particular the FBI, had failed to
consider the full range of threats that might stem from a war with
Iraq.
He said that beyond threats from Al-Qaida, U.S. intelligence
agencies had not adequately assessed threats posed by other Middle
Eastern terror groups that are likely to be inflamed by a war with
Iraq, among them Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"I think we make a mistake when we assume that the threat is only
Al-Qaida," Graham said. "There are a lot of terror groups out
there, some of them with a large presence in the United States,
who shouldn't be dismissed because in the past they have not
attacked in the United States."
He said that FBI officials, in closed sessions with the committee,
had been unable to provide basic information about Islamic
militant groups with a presence in the United States.
"The kinds of questions that I've asked are: How many operatives
are in the United States, where are they distributed, what is
their infrastructure -- financially, logistically and with
communications," Graham said. "It's the same inability to answer."
U.S. officials contend that the Iraqi intelligence service learned
a lesson from its failure to engage in anti-American terrorist
activities during the first Gulf War.
After the war, Iraq botched an attempt to assassinate former
President George Bush on a visit to Kuwait in 1993, prompting
President Bill Clinton to order a cruise missile strike on the
Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad.
Since then, according to the CIA, there is no evidence that Iraq
has engaged in terrorist activity against the United States.
Copyright © 2002 New York Times
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Congress strikes deal on independent commission on 9/11
The Scotsman, Sat 16 Nov 2002
THE House of Representatives has approved the setting up an
independent commission to look into the 11 September terror
attacks on New York and Washington.
The 366-to-three vote came early yesterday morning just hours
after the White House and congressional leaders struck a deal on
the long-sought investigation.
The measure now goes to the Senate, which is expected to approve
it and send it to President George Bush to sign into law.
The ten-member commission would have 18 months to examine how the
assaults on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon
outside Washington were able to take place, specifically looking
into any possible breakdown in security.
Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican, cast one of the three "no"
votes, denouncing it as a "blame-game commission".
But the Democratic whip Nancy Pelosi of California disagreed,
saying: "The purpose ... isnt to assign blame. It is to find out
why .... We have to get to the bottom of this."
The administration has opposed the setting up of the commission,
arguing that a congressional investigation was better equipped to
preserve national security secrets.
But families of the victims of the attacks, in which more than
3,000 people were killed, led a public campaign for its creation,
putting pressure on the White House and congressional leaders to
finally reach their agreement on Thursday. "This is a decisive
victory for the families of 11 September victims and the nation as
a whole," said Democratic Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who has
pushed for the creation of the commission since shortly after the
attacks.
"Finally we will get a clear picture of what government agencies
failed, how they failed and why," Mr Lieberman said.
Congressional and administration negotiators agreed that the ten-
member commission would be equally divided with five Republican
appointees and five Democratic appointees.
In addition, Mr Bush would name the chairman and the Democratic
congressional leadership would pick the vice- chairman.
Copyright © 2002 The Scotsman
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Specialty provisions threaten to sink homeland security bill
By James Kuhnhenn, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Nov. 17, 2002
WASHINGTON - Tucked into the nearly 484-page bill creating a new
homeland security department is a provision that permits the
creation of university-based centers for homeland security.
It sets 15 standards that a university must meet to qualify for a
lucrative federal grant. The main advocates of the university
provision were Reps. Tom DeLay and Joe Barton, both Texas
Republicans.
The most likely university to meet the bill's rigorous criteria?
Texas A&M.
The homeland security bill is pockmarked with such specialty
provisions. And they are threatening to sink it.
As soon as Monday, the Senate is scheduled to vote on an amendment
by Sen. Joseph Lieberman D-Conn., that would strike seven items
from the bill that the House of Representatives passed Wednesday.
If successful, the amendment probably would kill the bill, because
the House adjourned for the year early Friday.
"If the amendment passes, the odds are great the bill dies for the
year," said Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas.
But Democrats said the House could come back, approve the amended
bill and get it to the president for his signature by Christmas.
"Will the House let it die just because they went home for
vacation and turkey?" asked Sen. John Breaux, D-La., a moderate.
Another provision targeted by Lieberman would provide liability
protections for certain vaccine manufacturers, such as Eli Lilly
and Dow Chemicals. Under existing law, the federal government
compensates patients who are harmed by certain vaccinations,
rather than the manufacturers paying the damages. The new
provision would cover manufacturers of any component or ingredient
of the vaccine, and would prevent lawsuits against them in state
courts.
Critics say the language is designed to block lawsuits based on
controversial components such as the mercury-based thimerosal,
which is used as a preservative in vaccines. Pending lawsuits
argue that the preservative is responsible for autism in children
and other neurological disorders. The Food and Drug Administration
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they have
no evidence to back those claims.
Sellers of anti-terrorism technologies would also get liability
protections. If an anti-terrorism product fails to provide
protection in a terrorist act, the seller would be exempt from
punitive damages, and liability would be limited to the seller's
liability insurance.
Republicans also added a cyber-security provision to the bill that
had been blocked in the Senate, where Democrats had a narrow
majority. That section would broaden the ability of police to tap
Internet or telephone communications. It also would set a life
prison term for computer hackers who "recklessly" endanger
people's lives. The provision is meant for cyber-terrorists whose
actions could hurt the economy or damage crucial infrastructure,
such as an electric power grid.
But lawmakers were not only in a giving mood. They also stripped
or weakened other provisions that had been inserted or agreed to
by the Senate and the White House.
Among them was a Senate-approved amendment, sought by the late
Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., that would prohibit the department
from entering into contracts with companies that avoid taxes by
incorporating offshore. The new version gives the department
secretary the right to waive the prohibition to prevent loss of
U.S. jobs or to save money.
Republicans also eliminated Senate-crafted language that set
narrow guidelines permitting the department to avoid the open-
records requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. The
current bill includes the House-approved language, which has
broader exemptions and would keep more documents from public
scrutiny. The bill also would allow the federal government to
override state open-records laws and prohibit the release of any
information that a state received from the department.
As for Texas A&M and its chances for a homeland security grant,
Gramm noted that the criteria, which are not as narrow as they
once were, also would apply to several other large universities.
Copyright © 2002 Knight Ridder Newspapers
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