DHS to kill domestic satellite spying

[kpete]

Source: Associated Press


AP source: DHS to kill domestic satellite spying

By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writer – 54 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano plans to kill a program begun by the Bush administration that would use U.S. spy satellites for domestic security and law enforcement, a government official said Monday.

Napolitano recently reached her decision after the program was discussed with law enforcement officials, and she was told it was not an urgent issue, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it.

The program was announced in 2007 and was to have the Homeland Security Department use overhead and mapping imagery from existing satellites for homeland security and law enforcement purposes.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090623/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_spy_satellites

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Wow....one thank you e-mail being sent to DHS/Pres.

Good find...thanks, kpete.

[Duer 157099]

2. And we don't torture

Sure, whatever they say.

[Hekate]

3. Another step in reclaiming our country.

:patriot:

Hekate

[happyslug]

4. Meaningless, the same data can be obtained by aircraft

And since the 1920s, your property ends at 600 feet overhead. Thus it is NOT trespassing for anyone, including the police to take pictures of your home while in a plane more then 600 feet above your property. With Modern Cameras that gives the Police any picture they want whenever they want it. Satellite pictures would he harder to detect, but take days to schedule (i.e. the satellite MUST "fly" over the area to be pictured). Even in Combat areas Planes can do the job quicker (Maybe NOT better, but differently quicker, the plane just take off and take they picture and transmit them back to the base). A Satellite to do the same, first must be "guided" to the target and then flown over the target. This can take days to schedule (It may be quicker but I have no access to the top secret information on such matters). Given the greater need for such data from areas where the US can not fly planes (i.e. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China and the rest of the World we want data on) domestic Law enforcement request were very much at the bottom of the priority list. This further delayed the use of such satellites.

Overall, given the price of the Satellites, the time to get them over the area to be pictures, the ease and speed to fly a plane over the same area, I doubt any law enforcement agency ever made the request let alone received any pictures from the Satellite (Except for terrain pictures, like the ones on Google earth bit with higher resolution, those were made for map making and other purposes NOT to spy, but can show where what is where in an area the police are interested in).

[caseymoz]

8. But these weren't local police, first of all.

They were feds. Secondly, I think the Bush administration was set on "improving" the technology. Until if they could get you to look up, the satellite could detect cocaine in your nose.

Yes, an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

[provis99]

5. Finally!

I can now pee in nature once again without worrying a spy satellite is watching me.

[Wizard777]

6. Way to go Ms. Napolitano! We The People are not the enemy.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Great news!!!

nt

[Iowa]

9. This is no victory...

"The program was included in the Obama administration's 2010 budget request... Napolitano recently reached her decision after the program was discussed with law enforcement officials, and she was told it was not an urgent issue."

We're not hearing that the program was canceled because it was an attack on personal liberty/privacy, or because the Obama administration intends to reverse the headlong rush toward a police state. We're being told that this outrage was actually "included in the Obama administration's 2010 budget request", and that it was canceled because "law enforcement" didn't think it was urgent.

Yet some here are gushing about this as if it were the result of some principled stand. If there was a higher principle involved, it wouldn't have been included in the budget, law enforcement wouldn't have made the call, and Janet Napolitano would probably be contributing to society by performing honorable work (instead of chief Schutzstaffel), because the Bush conceived abomination we refer to as the "Department of Homeland Security" would be in the process of being dismantled.

[Robbien]

10. Agree. Local officials were stretched too thin and said they could not help

Big Brother keep an eye on us. They just didn't have the staffing or funds. They did throw in the privacy issue, but it was more of an aside comment rather than the primary reason.

[TheWatcher]

14. But most of the True Believers will simply ignore this, much like the other side ignored the Obvious

From the last Dictatorship.

What is astounding to me is that as cheap as words are, that's all that seems to be required to lather up the faithful. Too many no more pay any attention to actual actions than the other side did.

All you have to do is throw out token feel good "stories" and "rhetoric" and the sheep will keep grazing, feeling good, and not paying attention beyond the sound byte that gives them their much needed heroin high of faith.

My reaction to this is the same of every piece of pap that is fed to us.

I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm no longer interested in talk and promises.

Besides, like so many other things (TIA?), they'll probably just name it something else and continue on with the fun and games.

One day perhaps the faithful on BOTH sides will wake up to the fact that NONE of We The People actually have a voice or much of a say anymore, and that NEITHER Side is on OUR side.

Perhaps after Football Season, Or Basketball Season, or Baseball Season, or the next Season of American Idol.

You know, whenever they get around to it.

[Nihil]

15. Yep, that sounds about right ...

> What is astounding to me is that as cheap as words are, that's all that
> seems to be required to lather up the faithful. Too many no more pay any
> attention to actual actions than the other side did.
>
> All you have to do is throw out token feel good "stories" and "rhetoric"
> and the sheep will keep grazing, feeling good, and not paying attention
> beyond the sound byte that gives them their much needed heroin high
> of faith.

Nice summary - thanks!
:toast:

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. yeah, right

.
.
.

the check is in the mail . .

and so on

[The2ndWheel]

12. Woohoo! FREEDOM baby! Yeah!

I'm sure they no longer fund TIA either.

We are a people of, by, and for the government. Never forget that.

[bobthedrummer]

13. "U.S. Reconnaissance Satellites: Domestic Targets" (National Security Archive Electronic Briefing

Book 229)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB229/index.htm

Well, there are all those "private" eyes in the skies too...

"Soft Power and Space Weapons" by Trevor Brown (Spring 2009 Air & Space Power Journal)
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj09/spr09/brown.html

[Vidar]

16. What?? The CIA isn't peddling enough opium to finance this?

[Xenotime]

17. THIS IS CHANGE I CAN BELIEVE IN!!! OBAMA FTW!!! WHOO!!

This is great. This is just the opposite of *'s fucking death grip