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DHS ignores civil liberties
in domestic spy satellite plan, lawmakers say
Nick Juliano
Raw
Story
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Homeland Security Committee members fault Chertoff for delaying
legal framework for new office
A controversial plan that would allow domestic law enforcement
agencies to use data gathered by US spy satellites still lacks
necessary civil liberties and privacy protections, and three Democratic
lawmakers are urging Department of Homeland Security Chair Michael
Chertoff to established a legal framework for the new plan he
promised six months ago.
DHS plans to create a new office that would expand law enforcement
and other civilian agencies' access to data gathered by powerful
intelligence and military satellites orbiting the earth. The National
Applications Office will oversee who can access such satellite
data, which is typically used to monitor climate change and track
hurricane damage, among other uses.
(Article continues below)
DHS still has not laid out legal frameworks or standard operating
procedures for the office, according to a letter from three members
of the House Homeland Security Committee.
"We recently learned that the Department has begun to advertise
for positions at the NAO. While we applaud the Department's efforts
to prepare for the future, we are disappointed by its continuing
pattern of putting the cart before the horse," wrote Reps.
Bennie G. Thompson, the committee's chair; Jane Harman, chair
of an intelligence subcommittee; and Christopher P. Carney, chair
of an oversight subcommittee.
The lawmakers said they were concerned about the "privacy
and civil liberties challenges" posed by the domestic satellite
program. They said a legal framework for the program was missing
from the NAO's charter, which "had been finalized without
any input from this committee ... or the privacy and civil liberties
community.
"Instead of crafting a privacy and civil liberties solution
for the Department's NAO law enforcement customers or updating
us about a summer date for its completion, the NAO Charter now
makes clear that this critical undertaking will be postponed until
an unspecified time in the future," they write. "This
is unacceptable."
The domestic spy satellite plan was first proposed last August,
and its expected launch in October was delayed because of privacy
concerns. The lawmakers' letter, which was sent Monday, makes
clear those concerns remain.
Although we support any Department effort to engage in more
effective and responsive information sharing with our nation's
first preventers, the serious privacy and civil liberties issues
that the NAO raises are manifold and multifaceted. Doing business
with the NAO's law enforcement and other customers therefore
requires a robust and detailed legal framework and SOPs that
provide clearly defined privacy and civil liberties safeguards.
Merely mentioning Posse Comitatus and other laws in the NAO
Charter does not provide needed assurances that the Department
will not transform NAO into a domestic spying platform. Furthermore,
delaying the hard work of addressing the privacy and civil liberties
issues specific to law enforcement customers further erodes
our confidence that you are serious about serving their needs.
It's frankly time for the Department to lead on privacy and
civil liberties in this area -- not shirk a difficult duty.
The NAO would expand access to data gathered by Measurement and
Signal Intelligence (MASINT) satellites, which according to reports
use radar and infrared imaging technologies to see through cloud
cover, forest canopies and even concrete barriers. Allowing local
police forces access to such data raises substantial questions
about whether the door to 4th Amendment violations is being flung
open.
A Congressional Research Service report prepared last month outlined
some of these concerns. It concluded that privacy concerns were
likely to be dependent upon the type of technology used. That,
the lawmakers said in their letter Monday, has still not been
clarified by DHS.
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