Reply #8: U.S. Readies Aggressive Counterintelligence Plan (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

Sat Mar 5, 2005 01:54 PM ET

By David Morgan

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (Reuters) - The Bush administration has adopted a new counterintelligence strategy that calls for pre-emptive action against foreign intelligence services viewed as threats to U.S. national security, officials said on Saturday.

The first national U.S. counterintelligence strategy, which President Bush approved on March 1, aims to combat intelligence services from countries hungry for U.S. military and nuclear secrets, such as China and Iran, both at home and abroad, counterintelligence officials said.

Officials at a counterintelligence conference at Texas A&M University described the strategy as an extension of the post-Sept. 11 foreign policy initiative known as the Bush doctrine, which calls for pre-emptive action against nations and extremist groups perceived as threats to the United States.

"The United States has become the No. 1 target for the intelligence collection of other nations," said John Quattrocki, a senior U.S. counterintelligence official.

"What we'd like to do with the counterintelligence program is what we've done with counterterrorism, which is take the fight to other guy's back yard and exploit and interdict where we can, and at home, interdict where we must."

The strategy is due to be released to the public as an unclassified document in coming days.
(more at link)
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7816409&src=rss/domesticNews>