Counterintelligence Field Activity Counterintelligence Field Activity ( CIFA ) was a United States Department of Defense ( DoD ) agency whose size and budget were classified . The CIFA was created by a directive from the Secretary of Defense ( Number 5105 . 67 ) on February 19 , 2002 . On August 8 , 2008 , it was announced that CIFA would be shut down . The Defense Intelligence Agency ( DIA ) absorbed most of the components and authorities of the CIFA . Mission . CIFA goals were : Organization . The Director of DoD CIFA reported directly to DoD ' s Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence . The offices of Chief of Staff , Office of General Counsel , and Office of the Inspector General reported directly to the Director of CIFA . CIFA was then broken into four directorates : Program Management , Information Technology , Operational Support and Training and Development . Program Management was responsible for budgeting , management and accountability . Information Technology was responsible for planning and managing special technology needs of the counterintelligence enterprise . Operational Support planned , directed and managed counterintelligence activities and coordinated offensive counterintelligence campaigns . Training and Development set performance assessment standards and assured that defense counterintelligence training and education programs , as well as instructors , maintained accreditation and certification . Joint Protection Enterprise Network ( JPEN ) database . CIFA managed the database of " suspicious incidents " in the United States or the Joint Protection Enterprise Network ( JPEN ) . It was an intelligence and law enforcement system that was a near real - time sharing of raw non - validated information among DoD organizations and installations . Feeding into JPEN were intelligence , law enforcement , counterintelligence , and security reports , information from DoD ' s " Threat and Local Observation Notice " ( TALON ) reporting system of unfiltered information , and other reports . There were seven criteria taken into account in the creation of a TALON report : Army regulation 190 - 45 , Law Enforcement Reporting , stated that JPEN may be used to share police intelligence with DOD law enforcement agencies , military police , the U . S . Army Criminal Investigation Command and local , state , federal , and international law enforcement agencies . Privacy issues . The domestic collection of data by military agencies was strictly regulated by laws such as the Privacy Act of 1974 , which strengthened and specified a United States citizen ' s right to privacy as noted in the Fourth Amendment United States Constitution . In addition , the Supreme Court of the United States found in " Griswold v . Connecticut ( 1965 ) " the right to privacy against government intrusion was protected by the " " penumbra s " " of other Constitutional provisions . The DoD reflected these in its own guidelines that have been in place since 1982 . CIFA ' s similar collection and retention of data on peace groups and other activists promoted parallels to be drawn between the two programs by civil rights groups like the ACLU , and intelligence officials who found the prospect of the military tracking peace groups again to be worrisome . After ACLU filed multiple Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) requests regarding information gathering on peace groups and NBC did a report citing a Quaker group planning an anti - enlistment action that was listed as a " threat " , a review of CIFA activities was ordered by then Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen A . Cambone , who stated at the time that it appeared that there had been several violations . A complaint requesting the expedition of the FOIA requests by the ACLU was ruled in their favor by a federal court . The released documents showed that at least 126 peace groups ' information had been held past required removal dates . The DoD has since stated that it removed all improperly kept data . Shut down . On April 1 , 2008 , the Pentagon ' s top intelligence official ( James R . Clapper , the Under Secretary of Defense ( Intelligence ) ) recommended CIFA ' s dismantling . On August 8 , 2008 , it was announced that CIFA would be shut down and its activities would be absorbed by the Defense Intelligence Agency .