Four members of the unit working on Gov. Greg Abbott’s border mission have been punished after whistleblowers reported the surveillance operation violated long-standing rules against state-run spy operations.
Unaccompanied minor asylum seekers are apprehended by Customs and Border Protection after crossing the border in Roma on Aug. 3, 2021.
According to official planning documents and three soldiers with knowledge of the mission, leaders directed the border intelligence wing to detect the “capabilities of transnational criminal organizations” in Mexico and track their “criminal activity,” in addition to predicting where migrants would try to cross the border.
“Any competent attorney that understands basic Constitutional law will tell you that when the militia is deployed by the Governor, for a state mission, federal regulations are inapplicable unless federal funds or equipment are involved,” O’Connell said.“All I get is ‘No,’” he lamented in a February 2022 email to a state official over limits on intelligence training. “I need a way to ‘Yes.’”
Michael German, a former FBI special agent who studies intelligence policy as a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, warned that if states try to run their own foreign military intelligence operations, they risk upsetting the delicate ecosystem of international diplomacy with unpredictable spin-off effects.
According to internal emails, Texas Department of Public Safety and Border Patrol officials tapped Pierre as a translator during the Del Rio crisis, authorizing him to wear civilian clothes. In an email to Tyler, Rios claimed that Boates, the Operation Lone Star deputy commander, purchased the phone for Pierre.Texas intelligence officials were alarmed by Pierre’s conduct.
In order to comply, Rios began monitoring Pierre’s WhatsApp activity through a DoD computer linked to the phone, according to the whistleblower’s sworn statement and emails from state officials. Investigators later found he used the computer between Nov. 1, 2021, and April 2022, though he disputed that timeline.
A former signals intelligence specialist who spoke with Military Times and the Tribune likened such reports to pulling the emergency brake on a car — they often immediately shut down units for investigation. But the lieutenant colonel also argued the state was wrong about how and when intelligence oversight rules applied, claiming Operation Lone Star and Pierre’s actions presented a “unique situation.”
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Texas National Guard disbanded intelligence wing after members used WhatsApp to spy on migrantsFour members of the unit working on Gov. Greg Abbott’s border mission have been punished after whistleblowers reported the surveillance operation violated long-standing rules against state-run spy operations.
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Texas National Guard disbanded intelligence wing after members used WhatsApp to spy on migrantsFour members of the unit working on Gov. Greg Abbott’s border mission have been punished after whistleblowers reported the surveillance operation violated long-standing rules against state-run spy operations.
Read more »
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