The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, below, that Homeland Security and other federal police will gain access to military spy satellites. This is akin to what I wrote about last year, which is police agencies trying to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance over U.S. cities: http://news.com.com/2100-11746_3-6055658.html Both raise important privacy concerns. But if the people being surveilled are walking or driving on a public street, current precedent says police surveillance, even aggressive police surveillance, is just fine... -Declan --- http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118714764716998275.html U.S. to Expand Domestic Use Of Spy Satellites By ROBERT BLOCK August 15, 2007; Page A1 The U.S.'s top intelligence official has greatly expanded the range of federal and local authorities who can get access to information from the nation's vast network of spy satellites in the U.S. The decision, made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, places for the first time some of the U.S.'s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials. The move was authorized in a May 25 memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking his department to facilitate access to the spy network on behalf of civilian agencies and law enforcement. Until now, only a handful of federal civilian agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, have had access to the most basic spy-satellite imagery, and only for the purpose of scientific and environmental study. [...remainder snipped...] _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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