Bush to expand domestic surveillance

By Michael Fraase

Wednesday, 16 April 2008 08:14PM CST

Section: Privacy

You are under surveillanceThe Bush administration will start using the country’s most advanced spy technologies for domestic surveillance despite questions from congressional critics over the system’s legality. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the new domestic satellite surveillance office—the National Applications Office (NAO)—will be activated in stages according to Spencer S. Hsu’s account in the Washington Post.

In response to queries from Representatives Jane Harman (D-California) and Bennie G. Thompson (D-Mississippi), Chertoff wrote that “there is no basis to suggest that this process is in any way insufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.”

According to Hsu’s report, the Bush administration “in May 2007 gave [the Department of Homeland Security] authority to coordinate requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information, chemical detection and other monitoring capabilities that have been used for decades within U.S. borders for mapping and disaster response.” Congress delayed the office’s opening by forbidding Homeland Security from funding it last October, citing its potential to use military assets in domestic law enforcement, lack of adequate public debate, and diversion of research work on satellites to security uses.

Congressional critics insist the administration has failed to disclose what federal laws govern the NAO and point out that the office’s size and budget are classified.

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