by D. Cupples | I can't help wondering how Richard Nixon and the Watergate perps would have used modern surveillance equipment Would such technology have prevented Nixon Administration officials from orchestrating the famous Watergate office break-in that ultimately led to that Administration's demise?
Yesterday, I found an interesting Corp Watch article about President Bush's proposal to launch a new agency that would enable the use of U.S. spy satellites for domestic surveillance -- as though federal spending hasn't grown enough under this Administration. In part, the article states:
"A new intelligence institution to be inaugurated soon by the Bush administration will allow government spying agencies to conduct broad surveillance and reconnaissance inside the United States for the first time. Under a proposal being reviewed by Congress, a National Applications Office (NAO) will be established to coordinate how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and domestic law enforcement and rescue agencies use imagery and communications intelligence picked up by U.S. spy satellites...."
"If the plan goes forward, the NAO will create the legal mechanism for an unprecedented degree of domestic intelligence gathering that would make the U.S. one of the world's most closely monitored nations. Until now, domestic use of electronic intelligence from spy satellites was limited to scientific agencies..."
"The intelligence-sharing system to be managed by the NAO will rely heavily on private contractors including Boeing, BAE Systems, L-3 Communications and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).... At an intelligence conference in San Antonio, Texas, last month, the titans of the industry were actively lobbying intelligence officials to buy products specifically designed for domestic surveillance." (Corp Watch)
Most Americans had no idea that President Nixon's associates were breaking laws, just to keep tabs on political enemies (or to do them harm) -- until after that fateful day in 1972, when a Watergate security guard happened upon five Nixon-linked men breaking into and trying to tap the phones in the Democratic Party's office. (Watergate overview)
Does Congress really want an already-secretive (possibly law-breaking) Administration to have broad domestic-surveillance powers?
Another troubling thing: heavy reliance on private contractors for Bush's proposed agency. First, most contractors cost more than government employees would, if only by the amount that contractors charge for profits. Second, many contractors have further driven up taxpayer costs by padding expenses or outright committing fraud (examples linked at bottom of page).
The Bush Administration knows this, because the Justice Department has pursued hundreds of contractor-fraud cases since Bush took the White House.
Congress should be hyper-skeptical of President Bush's new proposal.
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* Contractor UNISYS in Trouble Again
* Contractor Fraud: Driving up War's Costs
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." (G.Orwell)
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“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” (Galileo Galilei)
Posted by: kassandraproject | December 12, 2007 at 10:53 AM