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DHS Finalizing Spy Satellite Program To Watch Americans
Without Congressional Oversight
Plans also include "cyber-security strategy"
to "protect" domestic computer networks
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The Department of Homeland security is forging ahead and finalizing
plans to use a network of spy satellites for domestic surveillance
despite the fact that the Congressional committee supposedly overseeing
the program has had no update on it for over three months.
A report in today's Wall
Street Journal suggests that Department of Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is in the process of finalizing
a charter for the program this week, regardless of the fact that
it is supposed to be suspended.
The DHS had declared that the program was "on
hold" after its existence was made public in
August, prompting an outcry amongst civil libertarians and lawmakers.
Demands to justify the congressional legality of
the satellites, which were originally mandated for foreign surveillance,
followed the revelation that a new department branch called the
National Applications Office would oversee the program
and be responsible for providing images from the satellites to
non military law enforcement agencies.
Critics have called for cuts to DHS funding, stressing
that the program is in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus
act, which prevents the use of military for domestic law enforcement.
It also violates the fourth amendment as the satellites are capable
of seeing through the walls of people's homes.
(Article continues below)
Domestic intelligence and security agencies are
now receiving
more funding for spy satellites than the military.
"We still haven't seen the legal framework
we requested or the standard operation procedures on how the NAO
will actually be run," House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie
G. Thompson told the WSJ.
In addition to the satellites, the surveillance
program also includes new forms of internet monitoring:
Mr. Chertoff also plans soon to unveil a cyber-security
strategy, part of an estimated $15 billion, multiyear program
designed to protect the nation's Internet infrastructure. The
program has been shrouded in secrecy for months and has also
prompted privacy concerns on Capitol Hill because it involves
government protection of domestic computer networks.
Essentially the program would allow the DHS to regulate
and control access to the internet in the name of "protecting"
national security.
The news comes on the back of separate
revelations that another military spy agency, the
NSA has increasing control over SSL, now called Transport Layer
Security, the cryptographic protocol that provides secure communications
on the internet for web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and
other data transfers.
In other words the agency is capable of intercepting
and reading your emails and instant messages in real time.
We also learned this week that the lawyer
for an AT&T engineer has alleged that "within
two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning
a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”
That is BEFORE 9/11, before the nation was embroiled in the freedom
stripping exercise commonly known as the "war on terror"
had even begun.
We shouldn't be surprised obviously, Government
surveillance programs targeting Americans are legion
and have been in place for decades.
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