The Department of Defense’s controversial Counterintelligence Field Agency, or CIFA, is no more, according to an announcement made yesterday. Apparently, the outcry from civil liberties groups was too great, so the agency got the axe - at least on paper.

Apparently, it was decided that the agency’s functions could be performed “more effectively” by “another agency” - the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center, to be precise. I’m not quite sure what the unwieldy abbreviation for new body is - DCHIC? DCI-HIC? DECOHUMIC? DECOHUMINCEN? - because, ah, the agency doesn’t exist. Yet.

In other words - somewhat cynical words - in order to make the ACLU happy, the DOD is going to try to rename CIFA, and transfer them to the control of - wait for it! - the Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA. Because, you know, the whole thing really wasn’t quite secretive enough before…

Last week, I wrote about the mysterious marks that had recently appeared on some - but not all - manhole covers throughout downtown Saint Paul. Yesterday, reader Tom Elko posted a story and video on the subject to the website of the Minnesota Independent, noting that all the marked manholes - and only the marked manholes - have now been welded, as predicted.
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