House Poised To Grant Arrest (Domestic Police) Powers To CIA, NSA

http://www.pogo.org/p/government/gl...

excerpt:

We are particularly concerned with the language in Sections 423, “Additional Functions and Authorities for the Protective Personnel of the Central Intelligence Agency,” and Section 432, “Codification of Authorities of National Security Agency Protective Personnel.” As currently written, Section 423 proposes that:

(a) The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency may issue regulations to allow personnel designated to carry out executive protection functions for the Central Intelligence Agency under section 5(a)(4) of the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 (50 USC 403f) to, while engaged in such protective functions, make arrests without a warrant for any offense against the United States committed in the presence of such personnel, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States, if such personnel have probable cause to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing that felony offense.

(b) The powers granted under subsection (a) may be exercised only in accordance with guidelines approved by the Attorney General.

We are concerned that potential for abuses is created by the current language. As written, the provision may undermine existing statutory limitations on CIA involvement in domestic law enforcement in that the language seems to extend the powers of CIA’s Special Protective Service (SPS) to geographical areas outside CIA facilities. Previous Congressional actions gave due consideration to concerns about potential abuses, and have appropriately legislated restrictions on the police powers of designed CIA personnel.1

It would be more practical for CIA SPS personnel to coordinate with appropriate federal or local law enforcement for “off-campus” protective situations in which a law enforcement role is reasonably anticipated. A possible compromise measure, although one that has its own problems, is to allow CIA personnel charged with executive protection the additional power to arrest or otherwise detain a person or persons intending immediate, unlawful physical harm against an intelligence executive while said executive is off-campus. But as currently written, Section 423 appears, vis a vis the phrase “any felony against the United States,” to grant to CIA security personnel powers that have little to do with the primary mission of “executive protection,” and potentially creates a pretext for use or abuse of these powers for the purposes of general domestic law enforcement - something no element of the CIA has ever been empowered to perform.