WASHINGTON, October 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The US Defense Department is seeking congressional approval to have massive intelligence powers to spy on US Muslims and foreigners in the US, Pentagon officials have said.

"We believe there are people in the United States who have information of value to us," Jim Schmidli, deputy general counsel for operations at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), told Reuters.

"That information is within different ethnic communities in this country -- recent additions to our population from distressed areas of the world, primarily the Middle East."

The Pentagon is seeking to amend the 1974 privacy law that prevents defense intelligence from recruiting informants because they must identify themselves to American citizens and resident aliens at the first contact.

The change would provide Pentagon officials with the same powers already granted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Pentagon officials argue this could help fight "insurgents" in Iraq and Afghanistan more effectively as they could gather key intelligence from potential informants in the US Muslim population.

Other potential targets for defense intelligence operatives would be foreign-born US nationals with ties to Iran and North Korea.

"What we want is to find a green-card holder who has relatives back in the old country, so that person can get information from a relative who works back in the old country in a nuclear arms development program," said George Peirce, DIA general counsel.

"This has a back-alley, dead-of-night feel to it," said Hooper.

The Pentagon has already got the backing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to amend the privacy law.

The committee approved the request in its fiscal 2006 intelligence spending authorization bill, which could be taken up by the full Senate later this month, according to Reuters.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, said through a spokesman Friday that he would be willing to consider adding the change to final legislation.

Congressional aides told Reuters the proposed privacy law change has been in the works for years and had little to do with "insurgents" when first put forward for debate.

Civil liberties advocates say the Pentagon is simply using troubles abroad to reacquire domestic espionage powers that Congress revoked in the wake of Vietnam-era abuses.

They warn that any change in the law would erode privacy protections, especially for American Muslims and resident aliens with personal ties to countries at the forefront of Washington's so-called war on terrorism.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the move would offend US Muslims.

"This has a back-alley, dead-of-night feel to it that I don't think would be received well by the Muslim community," he said.

Lisa Graves of the American Civil Liberties Union scoffed at a defense official's assertion that the proposed change would not give the Pentagon a carte blanche to spy on Americans.