In a move that is reminiscent of cold war-era East German Stasi, the FBI is recruiting an estimated 15,000 covert informants to assist in intelligence gathering. This is in response to a 2004 Presidential Directive where Bush ordered the agency to boost it’s counterterrorism efforts by boosting human intelligence capapilities.
According to ABC News’ The Blotter:
According to a recent unclassified report to Congress, the FBI expects its informants to provide secrets about possible terrorists and foreign spies, although some may also be expected to aid with criminal investigations, in the tradition of law enforcement confidential informants. The FBI did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
The aggressive push for more secret informants appears to be part of a new effort to grow its intelligence and counterterrorism efforts. Other recent proposals include expanding its collection and analysis of data on U.S. persons, retaining years' worth of Americans' phone records and even increasing so-called "black bag" secret entry operations.
Included in the program is an overhaul of it’s current database systems so it can handle the additional information gathered from it’s informants.
The program is being told to cost more than $22 million, which is indeed a very small number for such an effort. A quick calculation would put less than $1500 alloted per recruit. Possibly these are preliminary figures that are being told.
One thing we do know for sure is that the FBI has been involved, along with the NSA and Pentagon, in spying on everyday American citizens who are involved in anti-war and peace activist groups under the cover of the so-called "War on Terror". Does this equate to simply more future violations of citizens' privacy and civil rights?