June
7, 1999
Web posted at: 11:53 a.m. EDT (1553 GMT)
http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9906/07/privacy.idg/
by Daniel Verton
(IDG) -- Congress has squared off with the National Security Agency over a
top-secret U.S. global electronic surveillance program, requesting top
intelligence officials to report on the legal standards used to prevent privacy
abuses against U.S. citizens.
According to an amendment to the fiscal 2000 Intelligence Authorization Act
proposed last month by Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), the director of Central
Intelligence, the director of NSA and the attorney general must submit a report
within 60 days of the bill becoming law that outlines the legal standards being
employed to safeguard the privacy of American citizens against Project Echelon.
Echelon is NSA's Cold War-vintage global spying system, which consists of a
worldwide network of clandestine listening posts capable of intercepting
electronic communications such as e-mail, telephone conversations, faxes,
satellite transmissions, microwave links and fiber-optic communications traffic.
However, the European Union last year raised concerns that the system may be
regularly violating the privacy of law-abiding citizens. However, NSA, the super-secret
spy agency known best for its worldwide eavesdropping capabilities, for the
first time in the history of the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence refused to hand over documents on the Echelon program, claiming
attorney/client privilege.
Congress is "concerned about the privacy rights of American citizens and
whether or not there are constitutional safeguards being circumvented by the
manner in which the intelligence agencies are intercepting and/or receiving
international communications...from foreign nations that would otherwise be
prohibited by...the limitations on the collection of domestic
intelligence," Barr said. "This very straightforward amendment...will
help guarantee the privacy rights of American citizens [and] will protect the
oversight responsibilities of the Congress which are now under assault" by
the intelligence community.
Calling NSA's argument of attorney/client privilege "unpersuasive and
dubious," committee chairman Rep. Peter J. Goss (R-Fla.) said the ability
of the intelligence community to deny access to documents on intelligence
programs could "seriously hobble the legislative oversight process"
provided for by the Constitution and would "result in the envelopment of
the executive branch in a cloak of secrecy."
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