The “Break it Down” Blog

NOTE: Duplicated for distribution sake.

Beginning in October 2007 the Department of Homeland Security will open a new office called the National Applications Office (NAO) charged with civil/domestic intelligence gathering. (Video here)

This new division of Homeland Security was conceived entirely by the Executive Branch, with no Congressional input, and will serve as a clearinghouse for requests to access the data provided by military spy satellites, with a resolution of inches, to view the territorial United States. During the hearing Charles Allen, Assistant Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis told Chairman Bennie Thompson that their legal and civil rights oversite concerns were misplaced.

Some form of “Just trust us”, was the operative phrase. The NYT wonders this morning “How, exactly, has this worked, so far?”,

One term, frequently used by Allen, was Customer Base. The plan is for the NAO to serve as a clearing house for law enforcement requests to access the spy satellite data upon NAO’s approval. That approval will be granted through in house review, with no Judicial oversite, and no explaination forth coming to the Committee as to what, exactly, the guidelines for approval would be.

The legal staff of both Homeland Security and the NAO declined to attend the hearings, claiming, according to Chairman Thompson that they did not wish to appear on a panel that included the ACLU.

Both Republican and Democratic members of the Committee forcefully expressed their conviction that the proposed program would violate the Posse Comitatus Act.

The ACLU has it’s hands full trying to keep up with the extra-Constitutional activities of the Department of Homeland Security. (Everytime I type those words I want to wash my hands – They are so Germany, 1930’s.) They sent a representative to the hearing and it was his suggestion that the Committee block the October 1st start date for this program, insisting that Congress must establish legal controls and not rely on the good will of men to control the use of military technology to spy on Americans, in violation of existing law.