PBS Tackles Domestic Spying

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Here’s a TV show worth canceling your weekly Friday Night Pancakes-n-Beer Extravaganza: Tonight, PBS’ NOW is going to try to explain — at least partially — what goes on at the obscure Pentagon office called Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA).

It’s surprising that for all the heat focused on the place, it hasn’t faced much light until now: after all, CIFA awarded contracts to Mitchell Wade, who bribed congressman-turned-inmate Randy “Duke” Cunningham. In December we learned CIFA has maintained a database on anti-administration protesters within the United States, infuriating civil libertarians. And questions linger about how the product of the NSA’s domestic surveillance program may have fed into CIFA.

CIFA Director David Burtt will be on the show — I’m eager to hear what he’s got to say — as well as Bill Arkin, a Washington Post blogger (one of the good ones!) who broke the story of CIFA’s domestic spying. Check it out – PBS NOW at 9 p.m.

Update: Reader BW notes that PBS affiliates air the show at different times, so be sure to check your local listings.

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