[Infowarrior] - Privacy Fears Threaten Satellite Program

[Richard Forno]

Privacy Fears Threaten Satellite Program

Democrats Assail Surveillance System;
Issues With Charter

By SIOBHAN GORMAN
April 8, 2008; Page A3
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120761519810896735.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security's domestic satellite surveillance system is
running into fresh opposition from Congress, which is threatening to shut
down the program if the department doesn't more thoroughly address concerns
over protecting privacy.

The satellite program, known as the National Applications Office, is
designed to provide federal, state and local officials with extensive access
to spy satellite imagery to assist with emergency response and other
domestic security needs.

Lawmakers said the Department of Homeland Security hasn't created legal
safeguards to ensure that the office won't be used for domestic spying. They
also are asking for assurance that it is legal to use military assets such
as spy satellites for domestic security.

Recent classified briefings on the program "did not allay any of our
concerns," said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G.
Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff on Monday, written with two colleagues, he wrote: "Should
you proceed with the [program] without addressing our concerns, we will take
appropriate steps to discontinue it." (Read the letter.)

Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner said her department this week
will send lawmakers additional documents -- a certification that plans for
the office to comply with the law, descriptions of how the office will
operate, and assessments of the impact on privacy and civil liberties.
"These documents, along with the charter we delivered to Congress last week,
should answer many of Congress' remaining questions," she said in a written
statement.

Ms. Keehner said the office hadn't been launched, but that DHS "continues to
take preparatory steps so that we can stand up to the NAO once the
congressional requirements have been met."
[Bennie Thompson]

The clash is the latest in a series of conflicts between Democrats on
Capitol Hill and the administration over privacy issues stemming from
intelligence and national-security programs.

As recently as last week, Mr. Chertoff said the program would soon be ready
to go. "We've fully addressed anybody's concerns," he said. The department
has already begun to post job openings; one of the first people they are
seeking to hire for the satellite program is a lawyer.

The plan ran into resistance on Capitol Hill shortly after it was announced
in August, as lawmakers asked for a legal framework and details of how the
program would operate to ensure Americans' privacy. Homeland officials
promised not to begin the program until they answered lawmakers' concerns.

For months, the department worked on a document it called the new program's
charter. That document got hung up within the administration last winter
because agencies, including the Director of National Intelligence, expressed
concerns that it did not untangle legal issues such as how to ensure that
state and local privacy guidelines were followed. Plans to provide imagery
from the satellite program to state and local law-enforcement officials have
been put on hold until legal and privacy issues are resolved. (See the
charter.)

The charter creates a working group to handle policy and legal issues and
lists which privacy-related laws will govern the work of the new spy
satellite office. It also clarifies that the satellites won't be used to
intercept communications.

Democratic lawmakers said the charter doesn't address the requirements they
have written into law. Congress said it wouldn't provide money in 2008 for
the program until the department certified that it adhered to privacy laws
and the Government Accountability Office reviewed it. Homeland Security
hasn't yet sent GAO a certification for review.

Rep. Thompson, along with Democratic Reps. Jane Harman of California and
Christopher P. Carney of Pennsylvania, wrote to Mr. Chertoff to ask he stop
further work until he addresses their concerns. "We are disappointed by [the
department's] continuing pattern of putting the cart before the horse," they
wrote.

Rep. Thompson said he wants to see, in writing, how existing laws will be
applied to safeguard civil liberties and privacy. The charter describes at
what points in the process lawyers will evaluate the legality of a request
for data from the office, but it doesn't explain how they will make their
determinations.

Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky, the top Republican on the subcommittee that
doles out the Homeland Security department's money, called the spy satellite
program "an important tool for domestic counterterrorism operations" and
said he will work to ensure the department will meet congressional
requirements.

Homeland Security's inspector general concluded in a report released last
week that the department needs to revise its assessment of the new office's
impact on privacy and civil liberties before launching the spy-satellite
program. The department said it has done that.

Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman at wsj.com