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Our Domestic Intelligence Crisis
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:16:34 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com> Date: December 22, 2005 2:22:49 PM EST To: EPIC_IDOF () mailman epic org Subject: [EPIC_IDOF] Our Domestic Intelligence Crisishttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/ AR2005122001
053.html Our Domestic Intelligence Crisis By Richard A. Posner Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A31 We've learned that the Defense Department is deeply involved in domestic intelligence (intelligence concerning threats to national security that unfold on U.S. soil). The department's National Security Agency has beenconducting, outside the framework of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act, electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens within the United States.Other Pentagon agencies, notably the one known as Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), have, as described in Walter Pincus's recent articles in The Post, been conducting domestic intelligence on a large scale. Although the CIFA's formal mission is to prevent attacks on military installations in the United States, the scale of its activities suggests a broader concern
with domestic security. Other Pentagon agencies have gotten into thedomestic intelligence act, such as the Information Dominance Center, which
developed the Able Danger data-mining program.These programs are criticized as grave threats to civil liberties. They are not. Their significance is in flagging the existence of gaps in our defenses
against terrorism. The Defense Department is rushing to fill those gaps, though there may be better ways.The collection, mainly through electronic means, of vast amounts of personal
data is said to invade privacy. But machine collection and processing ofdata cannot, as such, invade privacy. Because of their volume, the data are first sifted by computers, which search for names, addresses, phone numbers,
etc., that may have intelligence value. This initial sifting, far frominvading privacy (a computer is not a sentient being), keeps most private
data from being read by any intelligence officer.The data that make the cut are those that contain clues to possible threats to national security. The only valid ground for forbidding human inspection
of such data is fear that they might be used to blackmail or otherwise intimidate the administration's political enemies. That danger is more remote than at any previous period of U.S. history. Because of increased political partisanship, advances in communications technology and morenumerous and competitive media, American government has become a sieve. No secrets concerning matters that would interest the public can be kept for
long. And the public would be far more interested to learn that publicofficials were using private information about American citizens for base political ends than to learn that we have been rough with terrorist suspects
-- a matter that was quickly exposed despite efforts at concealment. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act makes it difficult to conductsurveillance of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents unless they are suspected of being involved in terrorist or other hostile activities. That
is too restrictive. Innocent people, such as unwitting neighbors of terrorists, may, without knowing it, have valuable counterterrorist information. Collecting such information is of a piece with data-mining projects such as Able Danger. ... _______________________________________________ EPIC_IDOF mailing list EPIC_IDOF () mailman epic org https://mailman.epic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/epic_idof ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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