Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is a US Department of Defense (DoD) agency whose size and budget are classified. The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated as DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ...

Mission

The mission of DoD's CIFA is to develop and manage DoD Counterintelligence (CI) programs and functions that support the protection of the Department, including counterintelligence support to protect DoD personnel, resources, critical information, research and development programs, technology, critical infrastructure, economic security, and U.S. interests, against foreign influence and manipulation, as well as to detect and neutralize espionage against the DoD. Counterintelligence or counter-espionage is the act of seeking and indentifying espionage activities. ... Counterintelligence or counter-espionage is the act of seeking and indentifying espionage activities. ...

Organization

The Director of DoD CIFA reports directly to DoD's Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence - C3I) / Chief Information Officer. Assistant Secretary of Defense is a title used for many executive positions in the United States Department of Defense. ... Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence, or C3I is a military term that is used to describe an infrastructure that supports joint operations by a military force. ...

For certain functions the DoD CIFA is treated as a Combat Support Agency. It consists of: (1) A Director, (2) The Joint Counterintelligence Evaluation Office (JCEO), the Joint Counterintelligence Analysis Group (JCAG), the Defense Counterintelligence Information System (DCIIS) Program Office, the Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA), and the Defense Counterintelligence Force Protection Response Group (FPRG).

In carrying out the mission of these elements, the Director of the DoD CIFA may employ law enforcement personnel, in whole or in part, as appropriate, to carry out the DoD CIFA's law enforcement functions.

Joint Protection Enterprise Network Database

DoD's CIFA manages the database of "suspicious incidents" in the United States or the Joint Protection Enterprise Network (JPEN). It is an intelligence and law enforcement system that is a near real-time sharing of raw non-validated information among DoD organizations and installations. Feeding into JPEN are intelligence, law enforcement, counterintelligence, and security reports, information from DoD's "Threat and Local Observation Notice" reporting system of unfiltered information (TALONs), and other reports.

Privacy Issues

There is controversy regarding the JPEN system CIFA's domestic spying activities. Some believe CIFA may be collecting information on American citizens in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) and/or in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Amendment IV (the Fourth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. ...

Proposed Mission Changes

A recent (2005) proposal would transform the CIFA from an office that is security oriented to one that can also investigate suspicious activity within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage, or even economic espionage. In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ...

Verifiable sources:

Directive Number 5105.67

Office of the Secretary of Defense

Counterintelligence to the Edge

Early Warning - The Pentagon Breaks the Law

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