U.S. Domestic Surveillance - a Lack of Intelligence?
Richard Buchanan
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Domestic surveillance of citizens and residents within the United States has and will always remain an uncomfortable and highly controversial practice. Outsourcing domestic surveillance and intelligence gathering to paid contractors based in the U.K. using Jordanian nationals? This should raise more 
red flags than a Chairman Mao Zedong anniversary parade!
A reliable source has suggested the U.S. government paid a Jordanian contractor - fluent in Arabic - to infiltrate the extensive Arab-American community in Dearborn, Mich. The objective: to gain the trust of specific individuals and groups within the Arab community - both U.S. citizens and immigrants - and report back valuable information, such as the opinions of, or sympathy for, Muslim fundamentalists. The contractor - a Christian Jordanian - used the guise of a Muslim academic researching the Arab-American community to gain the trust and access to the mosques and homes of targeted Muslims living in this Midwest community.
Unfortunately, the hired contractor, now residing in Jordan, politely refrained from commenting on his report though, conspicuously, he did not deny the story. Without confirmation, the story remains dubious and without merit or credibility - which is a shame because there are many unanswered questions. Which U.S. intelligence agency contracted out the work? Why was the work contracted? What decisions were made based on acquired intelligence?
Further digging may help uncover some of the answers but perhaps some of the components of the story are not without precedence.
In December 2005, The New York Times broke the now-infamous story on the National Security Agency and its eavesdropping - of e-mail, telephone conversations, and postal services - between U.S. citizens and foreign nationals inside the United States, bypassing Congressional oversight and the judicial warrant process.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act made it illegal to spy on U.S. citizens in the United States without the approval of a special surveillance court.
A reliable source has suggested the U.S. government paid a Jordanian contractor - fluent in Arabic - to infiltrate the extensive Arab-American community in Dearborn, Mich. The objective: to gain the trust of specific individuals and groups within the Arab community - both U.S. citizens and immigrants - and report back valuable information, such as the opinions of, or sympathy for, Muslim fundamentalists. The contractor - a Christian Jordanian - used the guise of a Muslim academic researching the Arab-American community to gain the trust and access to the mosques and homes of targeted Muslims living in this Midwest community.
Unfortunately, the hired contractor, now residing in Jordan, politely refrained from commenting on his report though, conspicuously, he did not deny the story. Without confirmation, the story remains dubious and without merit or credibility - which is a shame because there are many unanswered questions. Which U.S. intelligence agency contracted out the work? Why was the work contracted? What decisions were made based on acquired intelligence?
Further digging may help uncover some of the answers but perhaps some of the components of the story are not without precedence.
In December 2005, The New York Times broke the now-infamous story on the National Security Agency and its eavesdropping - of e-mail, telephone conversations, and postal services - between U.S. citizens and foreign nationals inside the United States, bypassing Congressional oversight and the judicial warrant process.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act made it illegal to spy on U.S. citizens in the United States without the approval of a special surveillance court.