[FPSPACE] US reconnaissance satellites to focus on US territory

[pjp]

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Spy_satellites_to_be_used_more_0815.html

 

 

Spy satellites to be used more within U.S. 


Nick Juliano
Published: Wednesday August 15, 2007

Local and federal agencies are to have vastly expanded access to information
gathered from spy satellites in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reports
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118714764716998275.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_ne
ws&apl=y> .

Information from "some of the U.S.'s most powerful intelligence-gathering
tools" will soon be at the disposal of a wide array of law enforcement
agencies at all levels of government, reports Robert Block in the Journal
Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell decided to
increase access to the spy data earlier this year and asked Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to facilitate access to the spy data by
civilian agencies and law enforcement.

Previously, access to only the most basic spy-sattelite data was limited to
a handful of federal civilian agencies, such as NASA and the US Geological
Survey, which used the images for scientific and environmental study.

The move to turn spy satellites on American citizens raises legal questions
because the use of such data for law enforcement is "largely uncharted
territory." Even the officials behind the move were unsure of its legal
implications, the Journal reports.

"There is little if any policy, guidance or procedures regarding the
collection, exploitation and dissemination of domestic MASINT," noted a 2005
study from the US intelligence community, which recommended access to spy
satellites. MASINT, or Measurement and Signatures Intelligence, is a
particular kind of spy-satellite data that would become available to law
enforcement for the first time.

According to defense experts, the Journal reports, MASINT uses radar,
lasers, infrared, electromagnetic data and other technologies to see through
cloud cover, forest canopies and even concrete to create images or gather
data.

Excerpts from the Wall Street Journal:


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The full capabilities of these systems are unknown outside the intelligence
community, because they are among the most closely held secrets in
government.

Some civil-liberties activists worry that without proper oversight, only
those inside the National Application Office will know what is being
monitored from space.

"You are talking about enormous power," said Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel
and director of the Project on Freedom, Security and Technology for the
Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit group advocating privacy
rights in the digital age. "Not only is the surveillance they are
contemplating intrusive and omnipresent, it's also invisible. And that's
what makes this so dangerous."

Mr. (Charles) Allen, the DHS intelligence chief, says the department is
cognizant of the civil-rights and privacy concerns, which is why he plans to
take time before providing law-enforcement agencies with access to the data.
He says DHS will have a team of lawyers to review requests for access or use
of the systems.


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