When members of the intelligence community learn that an individual’s life may be in danger, they now have an obligation to warn that person, according to a new directive issued by the nation’s spy chief.
The Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued the “Duty to Warn” rule in July, requiring agencies to inform both US citizens and non-citizens of any threats of “intentional killing, serious bodily injury, and kidnapping.”
This includes threats where the target is an individual, a group, or an “institution, place of business, structure, or location,” the memo stated.
The order was made public Monday via a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Federation of American Scientists investigative journalist Steven Aftergood..
Aftergood noted that the directive contains several exemptions. The duty to inform is waived if the threat results from the “intended victim’s participation in an insurgency, insurrection, or other armed conflict.” Individuals who are suspected of being terrorists, assassins, drug traffickers, and other violent criminals are also not afforded a heads-up by the feds, according to the directive.
Clapper also made an exception in cases when disclosure would “unduly endanger US government personnel, sources, methods, intelligence operations, or defense programs.”
The new rule applies to intelligence gatherers in more than a dozen government agencies and departments including the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI faced criticism last year, when a FOIA request turned up records showing that the bureau was aware of a 2011 assassination plot against members of an Occupy Wall Street offshoot in Houston, but neglected to inform the group.
The bureau, which was monitoring the movement for “potential criminal activity”—a move that itself drew sharp criticism=—also shielded most details of the plot from the public. Relevant documents it released under FOIA were heavily redacted.
“An identified [redacted] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors [sic] in Houston, Texas, if deemed necessary…. [Redacted] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles,” read one of the files, which were obtained by journalist Ryan Shapiro.
“Why was the FBI appearing to pay far more attention to peaceful protesters in their investigation than to the actual terrorists who were plotting to kill those protesters?” asked Shapiro during a 2014 appearance on Democracy Now.
