[FPSPACE] FW: Secrecy News -- 08/15/07

[LARRY KLAES]

>From: "Steven Aftergood" <saftergood at fas.org>
>Reply-To: saftergood at fas.org
>To: ljk4 at msn.com
>Subject: Secrecy News -- 08/15/07
>Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:00:01 -0400
>
>
>SECRECY NEWS
>from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
>Volume 2007, Issue No. 84
>August 15, 2007
>
>
>**	INCREASED DOMESTIC ROLE FOR INTELLIGENCE FORESEEN
>**	BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE IN EUROPE
>
>
>INCREASED DOMESTIC ROLE FOR INTELLIGENCE FORESEEN
>
>Spy satellites and other classified intelligence technologies are
>poised to play a greater role in domestic homeland security and law
>enforcement missions, challenging long-standing legal and policy
>barriers against their domestic use.
>
>The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Director of National
>Intelligence recently authorized access to intelligence satellite
>products by officials of the Department of Homeland Security to help
>support border security.
>
>See "U.S. to Expand Domestic Use of Spy Satellites" by Robert Block,
>Wall Street Journal, August 15, p.1:
>
>      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118714764716998275.html
>
>A comprehensive 2005 government study of the use of intelligence
>capabilities for domestic applications concluded that "significant
>change is needed in policy regimes regulating domestic use of IC
>[intelligence community] capabilities" in order to permit their full
>exploitation.
>
>"The use of IC capabilities for domestic purposes should be… based on
>the premise that most uses of IC capabilities are lawful rather than
>treating any use as an exception to the rule requiring a case-by-case
>adjudication," the study said.
>
>"There is an urgent need for a top-down, Executive Branch review of all
>laws and policies affecting use of intelligence capabilities purposes,"
>the report said.
>
>In particular, the 1981 Executive Order 12333 which governs
>intelligence activities "should be amended to permit as unfettered an
>operational environment for the collection, exploitation and
>dissemination [of domestic intelligence data] as is reasonably
>possible," the report recommended.
>
>The authors acknowledged that such "unfettered" operation would require
>increased oversight, but they suggested that it could be satisfactorily
>accomplished by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.  The
>Board has been a minor, not notably influential player in recent
>intelligence policy disputes.
>
>The report acknowledged in passing a problematic 2001 U.S. Supreme
>Court ruling in the case Kyllo v. United States, which concluded that
>the use of infrared sensors to scan a private residence for heat lamps
>used in marijuana cultivation constituted an unlawful warrantless
>search.  The ruling appears to be significantly at odds with the new
>domestic intelligence thrust.
>
>"This decision has placed in question the continued viability of past
>settled practice of the IC within the domestic domain," the study
>delicately observed.
>
>Nevertheless, "to date we are not aware of any clear authoritative
>guidance issued on the impact, if any, of this decision."
>
>The 2005 study was first reported by the Wall Street Journal today.  A
>copy of the unclassified study, which was "produced solely for the use
>of the United States Government," was obtained by Secrecy News.
>
>See "Civil Applications Committee (CAC) Blue Ribbon Study," Independent
>Study Group Final Report, September 2005:
>
>      http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/cac-report.pdf
>
>Intelligence support to domestic environmental monitoring and emergency
>response has been conducted since the 1970s under the supervision of the
>little-known interagency Civil Appplications Committee.  A 2001 fact
>sheet describing the history and mission of the Committee is available
>here:
>
>      http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/cac-fs.pdf
>
>
>BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE IN EUROPE
>
>The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has published a glossy brochure setting
>forth its vision of a missile defense system based in Europe.
>
>See "Proposed U.S. Missile Defense Assets in Europe," Missile Defense
>Agency, June 15, 2007:
>
>      http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/missile/bmd-europe.pdf
>
>Various perspectives on the missile defense program were presented in a
>recently updated report of the Congressional Research Service,
>"Long-Range Ballistic Missile Defense in Europe," July 25, 2007:
>
>      http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL34051.pdf
>
>
>
>___________________________
>
>Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
>Federation of American Scientists.
>
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>
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