‘Big Brother’ Program Delayed By Congressional Committee

As I don’t follow the national news closely, this came at me hard, and more so because I found it reported in an Australian online publication.

The National Applications Office (NAO), a department of U.S. Homeland Security, was not allowed to begin domestic observations within the United States and its territories on October 1, 2007, due to concerns with civil liberties and the legality of its actions.

The NAO was to use military satellites to observe within the United States, primarily with respect to such civilian activities as emergency response, border control ,law enforcement, weather, climate, and map making.

According to an online article in the New York Times, “The program would have expanded access to material gathered by satellites that monitor American territory to agencies involved in emergency response, border control and law enforcement. A new office within the Homeland Security Department, called the National Applications Office, would coordinate requests from civilian agencies for satellite information. Currently, civilian use of the material has generally been limited to monitoring weather and climate changes and to making maps.” [New York times article “U.S. Postpones Domestic Spy Satellite Program” (subscription required)]

Specifically, members of the House Homeland Security Committee (HHSC) recommended the postponing of the start of NAO operations. Two HHSC members with concerns are Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (Democrat from Mississippi), who is also the chairperson for the HHSC, and Rep. Ed Markey (Democrat from Massachusetts).

Additional information on the program is found at the Homeland Security website called “Fact Sheet: National Applications Office”.

This sort of thing is something I usually prefer to leave to the conspiracy theorists, but in this case, I do wonder why this was not in the news readily available to us (I have since been looking for this online at web sites in the U.S., it is available from the N Y Times - but this is not my first, or second, place to look. Also, if you try to get to the article, you can, but you’ll have to give an e-mail address) and why this was considered in the first place.

Your thoughts?

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[tags] domestic satellite spy program, Dept of Homeland Security, N Y Times, Big Brother, 1984, tales of Communist Russia [/tags]

Technorati Tags: domestic satellite spy program, Dept of Homeland Security, N Y Times, Big Brother, 1984, tales of Communist Russia