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Congress to eye feds' spy satellite scheme

When politicians return to Washington from their August recess next week, one of their first orders of business will be lobbing questions at Bush administration officials over recently disclosed plans to open up powerful spy satellites to the likes of American border-security agents and police.

On September 6, the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee plans to hold a morning hearing entitled "Turning Spy Satellites on the Homeland: the Privacy and Civil Liberties Implications of the National Applications Office," according to a press release issued by the panel. Scheduled to appear for questioning are the Department … Read more

Congress OKs new direction for privacy panel

A White House panel charged with flagging privacy and civil liberties foibles in the government's electronic eavesdropping programs may soon be gaining a little more freedom.

Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have approved a 567-page conference report that would change the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from a panel within the Executive Office of the President to an "independent agency" within the executive branch.

Just last week, the current vice chairman of the panel, a former Reagan White House attorney, told a congressional committee that the panel was fine as-is. But Lanny … Read more

White House privacy adviser: We don't need more authority

WASHINGTON--Congress is already well on its way to bestowing new powers on an internal White House panel that's supposed to judge whether Bush administration programs like the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance regime pose privacy and civil liberties concerns.

But the board's chairman on Tuesday had one message for the politicians backing the new authority: thanks, but no thanks.

Civil liberties advocates have long dogged the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board--which was created within the White House by Congress in 2004 at the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission but didn't meet until 2006--for … Read more