House Committee on Homeland Security, Turning Spy Satellites on the Homeland: the Privacy and Civil Liberties Implications of the National Applications Office [Links to Witness Statements] Thursday, September 06, 2007
Press release, September 6, 2007: “Committee on Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment Chair Jane Harman (D-CA), and Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight Chairman Christopher P. Carney (D-PA) sent the following letter to Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Charles Allen, Assistant Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis, Department of Homeland Security regarding the Departments new spy satellite program…Todays testimony made clear that there is effectively no legal framework governing the domestic use of satellite imagery for the various purposes envisioned by the Department. Without this legal framework, the Department runs the risk of creating a program that while well-intended could be misused and violate Americans Constitutional rights. The Departments failure to include its Privacy Officer and the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer before this July, almost two years after planning for the NAO began, only heightens our sense of concern. Privacy and civil liberties simply cannot remain an afterthought at the Department.”
Related news:
New York Times, September 9, 2007 – F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets: “…documents indicate that the Federal Bureau of Investigation used secret demands for records to obtain data not only on individuals it saw as targets but also details on their community of interest the network of people that the target was in contact with. The bureau stopped the practice early this year in part because of broader questions raised about its aggressive use of the records demands, which are known as national security letters, officials said.”
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