- The head of the National Security Agency said last week
that Congress might want to aim the most powerful surveillance system in
the world at American citizens.
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- Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, in a rare public appearance
before the Senate Intelligence committee, said the ongoing terrorist threat
means America needs to debate where to draw the line between foreign and
domestic surveillance. Currently the NSA is prohibited from spying domestically.
-
- Here's an excerpt:
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- "Where do we draw the line between the government's
need for (counter-terrorism) information about people in the United States
and the privacy interests of people located in the United States? This
line-drawing affects the focus of NSA's activities, foreign versus domestic...
the type of data NSA is permitted to collect and how, and the rules under
which NSA retains and disseminates information about U.S. persons."
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- Until the 1970s, when the Senate's Church Committee revealed
what had been going on in secret, the CIA and the NSA conducted illegal
surveillance on American citizens. In response, Congress enacted a series
of reforms, notably the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
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- "These are serious issues that the country addressed,
and resolved toits satisfaction, once before in the mid-1970's," Hayden
said. "In light of the events of September 11th, it is appropriate
that we, as a country, readdress them. We need to get it right."
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- Statement: http://intelligence.senate.gov/0210hrg/021017/hayden.pdf
-
- -Declan
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- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology
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