LAT:

Pentagon intelligence operatives would be allowed to collect information from U.S. citizens without disclosing their status as government spies under legislation approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee and publicly released this week.

The bill would end a long-standing requirement that military intelligence officers disclose their government ties when approaching an American citizen in the United States -- a law designed to protect Americans from domestic intelligence activities by the Department of Defense.

The provision is one of several sections that would roll back privacy-related protections as part of an effort to improve U.S. intelligence agencies' ability to detect and prevent domestic terrorist plots. Another provision would make it easier for U.S. spy agencies to gain access to sensitive records on U.S. citizens that are held by the government and generally prohibited from being disseminated under privacy laws.

The changes are part of an intelligence authorization bill that calls for what officials described as a "significant" increase in funding for U.S. spy agencies, and would shift money away from controversial satellite programs that many lawmakers consider outdated and unnecessary. ..

Although the bill was endorsed unanimously by committee members, two Democrats expressed concern with the privacy provisions in written comments attached to the legislation.

Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said they considered the military intelligence provision a mistake. Pentagon operatives "should be required to tell United States citizens in the United States who are not suspected of any wrongdoing that they work for the government," the senators wrote.

They added that they "intend to support changes to this authority as the legislation moves forward."

Posted by Laura at October 1, 2005 02:48 PM