(AFP/File/Maria Belen Perez Gabilondo)The Department of Homeland Security, better known for harassing airline passengers than capturing terrorists, has retained its title as America's punching bag. The Washington Post reported that DHS improperly spied on the Nation of Islam. I take issue with this article for one significant reason.
The intelligence gathering violated domestic spying rules because analysts took longer than 180 days to determine whether the U.S-based group or its American members posed a terrorist threat.6 month deadline to determine if someone is a terrorist. Good to know. So then how did DHS gather intelligence on the group?
Charles E. Allen, who was DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the time, said that although violations were unintentional and inadvertent -- only publicly available information was collected -- the report should never have been issued.Publicly available information was collected. In layman's terms, they googled people and wrote a paper. DHS went "grad student" on the Nation of Islam. This cutting edge domestic spying methodology is apparently infringing on the rights of Americans. Here is a link to the Wikipedia page on the Nation of Islam if you are interested in conducting this Hollywood-esque brand of domestic espionage yourself.
DHS is open to a vast amount of legitimate criticism, just not on this issue.
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