The US Commerce Department said Friday that it will eliminate an internal security division after an investigation found it had overstepped its authority when it launched criminal investigations into Commerce employees and US citizens. The Investigations and Threat Management Service division had no “adequate legal authority” to conduct criminal investigations, according to an internal investigation by the Commerce Department’s Office of General Counsel.
The investigators recommended that the ITMS unit be eliminated within 90 days, and that its security duties be folded into other Commerce divisions. The Commerce Department said in a statement it would accept the report’s recommendations.
“Our most important priority is creating an environment at the Department of Commerce where employees feel safe and respected,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in the statement. “We are committed to maintaining our security, but also equally committed to protecting the privacy and civil liberties of our employees and the public.”
The internal review found that ITMS was managed poorly, but said in the report it had “not found any firsthand or documentary evidence that racial, ethnic, or national origin bias motivated any specific cases,” as had been alleged. The investigation was able to confirm that “ITMS engaged in broad searches of Department of Commerce servers for particular phrases and words in Mandarin as part of talent recruitment investigations.”
In addition to eliminating...
Read Full Story: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/3/22655880/us-commerce-shutter-security-unit-monitored-americans-social-media
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