Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Miami Herald: According to an adage, being paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t actually out to get you. The saying comes to mind because the government is expanding the access to information from spy satellites to include more domestic users in law enforcement. This brings government spying one step closer to home, and you don’t have to be paranoid to feel uneasy about that.
The Department of Homeland Security discreetly sidestepped use of words that might raise red flags — like “snooping,” “spying” or even “surveillance” — in announcing the move. A new DHS agency called the National Applications Office “will provide more robust access to needed remote sensing information to appropriate customers.” Sounds a lot like surveillance, doesn’t it? Reading further, it becomes clear that this means, among other things, sharing intelligence and information with “federal, state, and local government and law enforcement users.”
Right 0f privacy
Is this a bad idea? Not necessarily. But there is a reason that for decades the homeland has largely been deemed out of bounds insofar as the gathering and sharing of intelligence from spy satellites. A healthy respect for the fundamental importance that Americans place on the right of privacy has kept satellite intelligence focused on overseas targets. But according to DHS, 9/11 changed all that.
An internal government study group concluded that there is “an urgent need for action ... to effectively employ Intelligence Community capabilities for civil applications, homeland security and law enforcement uses.” This need is not so much explained as simply asserted — that is, we simply are told that it is necessary for reasons apparently so obvious that they do not need to be set forth.
Most Americans may well agree that this action is troubling but necessary. We live in troubled times, and if satellite technology can be used to enhance our safety at home, why not use it?
The problem with stealth technology, however, is that the intrusion — and that’s what it is, call it what they will — is unseen and undetected. Unlike, say, a search warrant executed on someone’s home, it leaves no traces. And it is omnipresent. There will be more satellites, not fewer, and they work around the clock.
According to DHS, the proper congressional committees have given their blessing to the plan. Internal procedures will “ensure the appropriate protection of privacy and civil liberties.”