American Spy Satellites To Snoop On U.S.

The Skinny: Department Of Homeland Security OKs Expanded Domestic Use Of Spies In The Sky

(CBS)  The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that the Department of Homeland Security has approved a measure to allow federal civilian agencies and law enforcement to turn American spy satellites on their own citizens for the first time.

Until now, the highly sensitive satellites were aimed mostly at other countries, usually ones we didn't really trust. Occasionally, geologists and NASA scientists got to use them to make things like topographical maps. Letting domestic security folks use them to spy is, the Journal says, "uncharted territory."

Officials have been mulling the plan for a couple years, but often bumped up against questions about whether this kind of snooping would violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars military for engaging in law-enforcement activity within the U.S., since the satellites are built for and owned by the Defense Department.

The decision was made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnel, and OKed in May by DHS chief Michael Chertoff.

Access to the satellite will be controlled by a new Homeland Security branch, the National Applications Office. As Charles Allen, the DHS's chief intelligence officer who will head up the new program, summed up cryptically, "It is an idea whose time has come."

Naturally, privacy groups are freaking out. Sentences like this one probably don't help. "The full capabilities of these systems are unknown outside the intelligence community, because they are among the most closely held secrets in government."

One privacy advocate complained that it was this secrecy that was the real problem.

"You are talking about enormous power," said Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel and director of the Project on Freedom, Security and Technology for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit group advocating privacy rights in the digital age. "Not only is the surveillance they are contemplating intrusive and omnipresent, it's also invisible. And that's what makes this so dangerous."

Sneak Peak At Petraeus's September Report

Wait 'till September, wait 'till September, wait 'till September. Republicans spent much of the summer begging other lawmakers and the American public to reserve judgment on the troop surge until Gen. David Petraeus presented his September report.

But for those who can't wait, there's a report in the Los Angeles Times this morning attempting an educated guess at what the September report might say.

According to unnamed officials interviewed by the paper, Gen. David Petreus is expected to propose a "partial pullback" in his September report which would authorize U.S. commanders to withdraw troops "from places that have become less violent."

This might mean withdrawing from Ninveveh province in northern Iraq and Al Anbar in the west, according to unnamed officials, but it "does not necessarily follow that Petraeus would call for reducing the overall number of troops in the country."

Bigtime Baksheesh In U.S. Contracts In Iraq

USA Today reports that a federal crackdown on corruption involving U.S. contracts in Iraq produced a record number of criminal and administrative cases last month, including the largest bribery case.

Pentagon auditors have questioned $4 billion in contractors' bills for work in Iraq. So far, 29 people have been charged or convicted, 7 of them last month. During the last week of July alone, investigators accounted for four arrests, including those of Army Maj. John Crockerham, his wife and sister for allegedly taking $9.6 million in bribes.


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[undermyboot]

The King and his court demand more power. They claim it is needed to make you safe. They say that liberty is an illusion and freedom = safety. The dumocrats bend over and spread their cheeks for the King. The country heads toward fascism and dictatorship. The Congress applauds this. The King claims power is his divine right. The people follow blindly. The press is silent. Faux News supplants the truth. "Truth" is redefined by the King and his Faux News propaganda arm. Behind the scenes the last vestiges of the Constitution are burned behind the veil of "national security", and the population applauds the end of liberty as if it were a victory. The monkeys howl their success. The founders of the USA roll over in their graves one last time. The Republic is lost.

"Freedom? What''s that?", asks your 8 year-old great granddaughter. "Shhhhh", your grandson says as he glances around. "Never say that word again, honey. They are always listening". He quietly walks out of her bedroom. The government computer records "possible future subversive" in your great granddaughter''s file.

[undermyboot]

"If you are innocent you have nothing to fear..."

Saturday! Off to Home Depot. Garden needs fertilizer. Need 50 gals diesel for the ol'' backup gen. Hurricane season. Driving, your buddy calls. He''s back from a Europe trip with the wife- a great time & even made a side trip to ancient Petra in Jordan. He had a hard time getting hold of you. You explain that your phone was stolen, so you''re using a temporary throwaway. You say, "Hey, let''s hit the range! I just bought this beautiful high power rifle for the 1000 yard competition."

At Homeland Security, an alert pops up. Someone bought lots of diesel & fertilizer. Mix the two and- boom. He also bought a throwaway cell phone, as terrorists are known to do. ATF reports he bought a high power rifle. NSA "relationships" software shows this person has contact with someone who just came back from the middle-east. His grandparents were from Jordan! Hmmm.

Your boss receives a visit from the FBI. "Sorry sir, we can''t tell you exactly why we are investigating your employee. It''s a national security matter. You understand that, under the Patriot Act, you cannot tell ___anything about our questions. Now tell us what kind of American ___ is?" There goes your promotion & maybe your job. You''ll never know why. Similar things happen at your bank (forget that loan), with your friends & family (why are they acting strange?), your doctor, your NRA buddies, your kids'' school,... But hey, nothing to worry about ''cause you did nothing wrong. Right morons?

[undermyboot]

%u201CIt was, as one of his colleagues confirmed, almost a happy day for him when famous buildings were destroyed, because at such time he put into his speeches that ecstatic hatred which aroused the fanaticism...%u201D George Bush after 9/11 (oops, I mean - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister)

---------

"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death". - Adolph Hitler

"The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened".- Joseph Stalin

And so the modern-day monkeys clamor and cry for destruction of liberty so they can "feel" safe. What a bunch of cowering chimps. But Rush, Fox, and the rest of the government propaganda network says it must be so, so it must be so. Give them a banana Melanie! Throw some more sh*t at the zoo visitors, Coulter. ROFLMAO

[drummer94]

Go outside a few times an hour wherever you''re at and flip off the sky. He11, Bush has been flippin us off for years. If somebody comes to your door and you''re a law abiding citizen say, "you are trespassing on private property, and I am well within my right to protect my life and property from government intrusion."

[bennyblack1]

Quite frankly, some of you on this board utilize satelites to watch your neighbors. And don''t tell me you haven''t. They don''t have a clue, but you''ve got all their routines down, and know what their going to do before they know it. You''ve turned you''re own neighbors into enemies. We''ve gotten so screwed up in this country that we don''t trust each other. Then, you peg out some innocent guy because you think he''s a "threat" to you. Then you talk about him. And don''t tell me you don''t, I know better. So, America, go ahead and condemn the government. You''re getting back what you have been dishing out!

[stargate1121]

I feel like that maybe they''ll be spying on political opponents now and later it will be the private citizens. count on it.

[pileatedwood]

I have seen RED,WHITE, and BLUE flashing objects in the skies ever since 911 but no one would tell me what they were. SPY Satellites I am guessing. More of them each year.

If anyone else did as poor of a job as Bush, they would have been fired by now. Why can''t he be impeached and removed for all the obvious lying and self-centered projects he performs?

[berniepeders]

You guys watch too many movies.

[toldyouso21]

If it is shown that this program is being used to subvert a particular political party, or incriminate the innocent...I'll be the first to hop on your band wagon. Posted by ThinkHarder- at 02:25 PM : Aug 15, 2007

TRY THINKING HARDER. ThinkHarder, the fact is prevention is easier to facilitate than opposition and Monday morning quarterbacking. witness us trying to get the genie back into the bottle after erroneously invading Iraq....not easy, pretty or likely.

Now on to your comments..."If it is shown that this program is being used to subvert a particular political party, or incriminate the innocent...I'll be the first to hop on your band wagon." Unfortunately, if THAT is shown, more thsn likely you and the others who failed to connect the dots of a rogue/unscrupulous admin that woukd out a CIA agent, lie about the war, resist subpoenas, refuse to testify underoath, jettison the Geneva conventions, commandeer the NG to use against the citizenry if he deems an emergency, use, shred and erase emails, stack the courts and the DOJ, etc ad nauseum....but again, if you see nothing wrong with such a group having the ability and legal right to spy on anyone--then by the time you realize the danger and want to jump on that wagon--it will be waaaaay too late.

You and others like you, will have even more recriminations for aiding and abetting this new police/big brother state--than you now do for a war that never should have been waged in Iraq.

[toldyouso21]

Naturally Patreus will say the war is going well and that the surge is working. Did anyone think it would be any different? Remember when Bush said (for years) that we were winning in Iraq? Remember all the generals that NEVER contradicted his assessment until years later---and then, only after retirement? Remember the information Bush lied about or omitted in all of the NIE reports and how the real story only trickled out years later?

The fact is, as the author and architect on the surge, Patreus's comments are tantamount to a job self assessment--he'd be suicidal (career wise) to go against what his boss is saying. Bush says it is all going well and Patreus's job is to spin it, lie, fudge, prevaricate---you name it--to make his Boss appear credible.

Gates has a similar job. If they were not capable of shoveling, eating, and churning out loads of bullllshitttt themselves--then they never would have made it to captain let alone generalorwhatever rank Gates holds. That rank and being chosen by Bush says it all.

The surge is NOT going well. Because the goal was to buy time for the Iraqi gov. to iron out solutions--and that gov. is alternately vacationing and falling apart as we speak.

[oakishpines]

' ... the definition of what comprises a home must be changed, lest more folk take pleasure in the pursuit and discipline of naked ignorant kids ... '


' ... if one in ninenty nine trail crossings are get sick tax world frisk stations, who doesn't find an alternate route? ... '


' ... poor pharoah was born in a world of militants screaming freedom and liberty and dare and shock and awe and we'll get you anyplace anytime and most folk dance get well feed world songs rallied around the sick beds drifting amoung the tens millions song dance skit kit spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle ffirst aid lunch farm cottage studio trails ...

... so she screams 'freedom and liberty' and 'dare and shock and awe' and 'we'll get you anyplace anytime' and 'most folk dance get well feed world songs rallied around the sick beds drifting amoung the tens millions song dance skit kit spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle ffirst aid lunch farm cottage studio trails' ... '


' ... i for one think we girls should discipline more the dressed men before all the men are runing around dressed ... '

[azmka]

There is a word, it starts with an r and rymes with evolution.

I better not say more for fear the secret government thugs are reading this. In fact, they more than likely are.

[azmka]

I never could have dreamed that our beloved country would come to this!
We really need to come together and stand united to take back the privacy and freedom that the government has taken away.

[tuckerndfw]

The government is not interested in spying on Aunt Mabel feeding her cat.

The government is interested in spying on political opponents of the party in power or anyone who voices opposition to government policies.

Which is the same goal dictators have had throughout history.

[gunownerdan]

The terrists hate us for our "freedom", so if we destroy our freedom and liberty maybe the terrists won't hate us anymore, right Bushtards?
Have the terrists won yet?

[tuckerndfw]

Spy satellites do not rely on photographs. They have advanced technology that can "see" through most anything.

If a spy satellite is "watching" you, nothing you do will be private. And, with a little help from computers, the imagery can be converted into a "picture" of you.

If you think hiding inside your house or a building will defeat a spy satellite, I suggest you think again.

[my_thoughts6]

Wow, what next? I am all for watching our enemies, and terriosts to keep our country safe. ----But---- this is just a start to run and control each and everyone of us. Our so called goverment now days think they , no let me refrase that, they KNOW they can do whatever they want to do to us. And none is gonna stand up and say enough is enough.
When are WE THE PEOPLE gonna do something about all the *** there doing and handing us. Have we really already laid down, and given up? Come on people. It does NOT take the rich only to do what should have been done many years ago. Take back our beloved home. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. When are we gonna say we have had it. When are WE gonna do something? We better NOT wait to much longer.
Look where OUR jobs are. Look at the MESS our beautiful Counrty is in. Jobs, economy, Health insurance, taxes, and on, and on and on and on.
WHY are we makling other counties rich, and letting ours go in the gutter? WHY, WHY, WHY???

[thinkharder-]

Very clever insult by the way "UnderMyBoot", but on to a bit of commentary. I understand your passion, I do. Do you think I like the idea of having my every move watched by the government? hardly...get off your high horse. I'm trying to be rational here. The fact of the matter is this; our every move will not be watched, and just because our society is investigated using the most sophisticated techs. to search out terrorist sympathizers doesn't mean our liberties and rights are being trampled. How so? What exactly are you losing your right to do? My views on this administration are in line with the rest of the 70% or so of the country in agreement that this administration is destroying the American ideal. Maybe you're right. Perhaps we shouldn't allow for such programs. But having lost a 8 of my very best friends and 1 immediate family member on 9/11, I'm inclined to give most any preventative measure at least a chance to perform according to specifications. If it is shown that this program is being used to subvert a particular political party, or incriminate the innocent...I'll be the first to hop on your band wagon. however, if it gives us the oppotunity to uncover a weapons cache otherwise unvisible from the ground, or track a known terrorist sympathizer so as to catch up with his friends...awesome, and at least I know about it.
This is a touchy situation indeed...perhaps I'm too much the optomist.

[Syndicate]

Maybe one of those Privacy groups could get the local police department to stop flying their helicopter. I don't like the police being able to watch me from overhead.

[olebd]

You know they'll only hire low-wage schmucks to run the cameras and all they will be trying to zoom in on is pretty girls in various stages of undress. LOL