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Welcome to my Blog! Thanks for stopping by. I'll be posting from time to time my adventures in writing and my trials and tribulations in the publishing world, along with anything relevant in regards to current events, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Intelligence community that appears in the press. Please note that anything I post is not reflective or representative of any official position of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Air Force; only my views and opinions as a private citizen.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Executive Order 12333 Amended

President Bush issued Executive Order 13470 yesterday. This order alters Executive Order 12333, UNITED STATES INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES.

EO 12333 is one of the documents used within the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) to set policy, along with U.S. Law, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights.

It sets out the President's guidance for the management of the community, affirms the roles and responsibilities of various IC elements, and prescribes some specific prohibitions the IC and its employees must respect.

So what was changed? (The changes listed below do not reflect typographical, grammatical, or consistency related changes within the EO.)

Part 1 - "Goals, Directions, Duties, & Responsibilities with Respect to U.S. Intelligence Efforts" was completely re-written. The major effect of the re-write of Part I is to insert the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) into a position of more direct control over the IC. This re-write helps to codify the DNI's authority and will hopefully cut down on any, "Yes you will." "No I won't." situations between the DNI and the heads of the IC elements.

Part 2 - "Conduct of Intelligence Activities" was altered to include:

  • Changing Section 2.2 to include gathering foreign intelligence regarding "the spread of weapons of mass destruction."
  • Changing Section 2.3 to ensure that signals intelligence (SIGINT) is only "disseminated or made available to Intelligence Community elements in accordance with procedures established by the Director in coordination with the Secretary of Defense and approved by the Attorney General."
  • Changing Section 2.3.e to permit the collection, retention, and dissemination of information needed to protect foreign intelligence or counterintelligence activities.
  • Changing Section 2.5 to limit the delegation of the approval of the IC's monitoring of a U.S. Person to that outlined in the FISA of 1978, as amended.
  • Adding a new section, 2.13, which states that, "No covert action may be conducted which is intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media."
Part 3 was altered to include:
  • Affirming the Attorney General's (AG) Role in Approving Procedures Established by IC Element Heads that Implement the Procedures in Section 2 - Any Dispute Between the AG and the IC Element Head will be Resolved by the National Security Council
  • Providing current definitions of Counterintelligence, Covert Action, Electronic Surveillance, Employee, Foreign Intelligence, Intelligence, Intelligence Activities, the members of the IC, National Intelligence & Intelligence Related to National Security, and the National Intelligence Program
The prohibition against assassination remains in place, as well as the ban on human experimentation outside of the guidelines provided by the Department of Health and Human Services where the subject's informed consent has been documented.

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