ADMINISTRATION SET TO USE NEW SPY PROGRAM
IN U.S.
Congressional Critics Want More Assurances of Legality
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 12, 2008; A03
The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using
the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's
legal authority.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department
will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional
scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain
maps.
Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement
once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept
communications.
"There is no basis to suggest that this process is in any way insufficient
to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans," Chertoff wrote to Reps. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Jane Harman
(D-Calif.), chairmen of the House Homeland Security Committee and its intelligence subcommittee, respectively, in letters
released yesterday.
"I think we've fully addressed anybody's concerns," Chertoff added
in remarks last week to bloggers. "I think the way is now clear to stand it up and go warm on it."
His statements marked a fresh determination to operate the department's
new National Applications Office as part of its counterterrorism efforts. The administration in May 2007 gave DHS authority
to coordinate requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information, chemical detection and other monitoring
capabilities that have been used for decades within U.S.
borders for mapping and disaster response.
But Congress delayed launch of the new office last October. Critics
cited its potential to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement, to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies
against Americans without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian and scientific focus of some satellite
work to security uses.
Democrats say Chertoff has not spelled out what federal laws govern
the NAO, whose funding and size are classified. Congress barred Homeland Security from funding the office until its investigators
could review the office's operating procedures and safeguards. The department submitted answers on Thursday, but some lawmakers
promptly said the response was inadequate.
"I have had a firsthand experience with the trust-me theory of
law from this administration," said Harman, citing the 2005 disclosure of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program,
which included warrantless eavesdropping on calls and e-mails between people in the United States and overseas. "I won't make
the same mistake. . . . I want to see the legal underpinnings for the whole program."
Thompson called DHS's release Thursday of the office's procedures
and a civil liberties impact assessment "a good start." But, he said, "We still don't know whether the NAO will pass constitutional
muster since no legal framework has been provided."
DHS officials said the demands are unwarranted. "The legal framework
that governs the National Applications Office . . . is reflected in the Constitution, the U.S. Code and all other U.S. laws," said DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner. She said its
operations will be subject to "robust," structured legal scrutiny by multiple agencies.