back to article American space self-monitoring plan delayed

America is delaying controversial plans to use satellites for spying on itself. It was announced yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would not open its planned National Applications Office until legislators' concerns were addressed. The idea of the National Applications Office was that it would allow the …

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  1. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Money well Spent Generates Monies to Spend Equally well Everywhere Else

    MILiterary IntelAIgents, Holywood Palace Barracks Productions in Projection, NI, could help them along the Digital Way..... A Parallel Course in Mutually Beneficial InterActions for a More Univeral Virtual Feedback of Sustainable and Sustaining Acceptance/Adoption/Marriage of Views

    QuITe who would be handling that Dept. is anyone guess as ITs Info gets passed Pillar[of Society] to Post [Elected] MILiterary IntelAIgents, Holywood Palace Barracks Productions in

    Projection, NI, could help them along the Digital Way..... A Parallel Course in Mutually Beneficial InterActions for a More Univeral Virtual Feedback of Sustainable and Sustaining Acceptance/Adoption/Marriage of Views

    QuITe who would be handling that Dept. is anyone guess as ITs Info gets passed Pillar[of Society] to Post [Elected] so effectively and effetely?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bad idea...

    Forget the black helicopters...now they will use satellites. I for one am not happy with the idea of 24x7 covert eyes. I thought the UK's adoption of CCTV everywhere was bad enough, but at least you can see when you are being seen...but to have the government using sophisticated viewing systems following us everywhere from space, without our knowledge, is deeply disturbing.

    You just KNOW this will be used for political control, subversion, etc. It may take a decade or two, but it will start to happen - belong to an opposition or minority political party or movement, and expect to have your movements followed from space.

    All this loss of liberty, and they still don't bother to check all the shipping crates being delivered into ports from overseas - something like 1 in 10 gets checked for radioactivity.

    It is hard to accept ever-growing loss of liberty and privacy in the name of "terrorism response" when the most simple, basic measures are still not being addressed...it makes you question the REAL reasons behind the intelligence net that is engulfing us all.

  3. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Graceful State Secrets.

    Is there something you fear in the Information you can Share, Anonymous Vulture, that would make you so anxious and unctuous?

    Future Information is safer in those cases....for you can change IT at Will to a Present Picture too.

    A Neat Trick Available to Anyone with ITs Knack.

  4. Alex

    What the hell has Intelligence got to do with it?

    We reallys should stop using the term 'Intelligence' in this way... If intelligence had anything to do with it we wouldn't be heading directly towards the kind of big brother society that Hollywood has been warning us about for the last 40 years.

    It is all too easy to fall back behind the old 'Well you don't have to worry unless you have something to hide' saying but that really isn't the point is it.

    This technology will only be available to those with power and that includes those people with enough money to buy power so it is inevitable that these technologies will be used for personal gain and on that sort of scale these gains are always to the detriment of others, namely you and me.

    The reason we have terrorism in the first place is because we spend too much time poking our noses into other peoples business. At some point those people get really pi$$ed off and decide to retaliate. It is therefore quite ironic that we decide to fight this problem by inventing technologies to make the job of 'poking our noses in' that much more efficient.

    As with biological viruses all we are going to end up doing is creating a new strain of super-terrorists!

  5. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Sure they won't

    "no intention to begin operations until we address your questions"

    Gosh, if they say so then it's obvious they won't, right ? Or is this the same kind of "no we won't" than the wiretap fiasco ? Somehow I can't help but imagine some journo being cuffed, beaten by black-suited thugs with big fists, and pushed out of the CIA van with the words "talk about satellites and you'll see us again, but we won't be so nice next time".

    Really, from the government that gave us "torture is legal", asking me to trust their word is REALLY stretching credibility.

    Given the current track record in domestic surveillance, I wouldn't be surprised if satellite surveillance has already been put in place since 2002. After all, there is no law against it now, is there ?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I always assumed

    they did this anyway. It's completely useless of course thats why I don't care.

  7. Morely Dotes

    @ amanfromMars

    "Is there something you fear in the Information you can Share, Anonymous Vulture, that would make you so anxious and unctuous?"

    The short version of that is "the innocent have no reason to hide." Which is bollocks. There is a fundamental human right to privacy, which is why all of our homes have shades on the windows.

    Those who would remove that right deserve no more consideration than a gnat - they should be eliminated and the remains disposed of most expeditiously, in order to preserve the lives and liberties which they accepted the job of preserving, and which duties they have chosen to abrogate.

    Here in the USA, the Pledge of Allegiance does *not* contain the phrase, "One nation, under surveillance," and it is the duty of Americans (and that includes the American military) to ensure that phrase is never appropriate. Armed insurrection is a terrible thing, but according to the Declaration of Independence, it is sometimes necessary.

    I sincerely hope the US Government does not push us, the American people, that far.

  8. Naiirita

    hmmm

    arent easier to use and more layers of oversite mutually exclusive?

    and just a thought, for all of you who are claiming its 1984 and this will just be used against us in the future, you do relize the same could be said of a lot of things, the military, the police, taxes, medicare even??? i think some will even argue that some of these are already being used aginst them... that dosent mean they arent needed or usefull. not saying this is a good idea, but the mere fact it "can be used against you" does not automaticly make it a bad idea.

  9. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Why Penalise yourself?

    With Total Information Awareness, those in Power would be enabled to transfer wealth to where IT Creates more. New Source Mentored by Virtual Autonomous Anonymous Investment, if Need be. Although most Investors enjoy deserve FutureSight Kudos

    And of course, there are always those Programs which are HyperRadioProActive and which Hail them with a < Hello Wwworld>

    Hello Wwworld.

    Fact of Fiction?

    "The short version of that is "the innocent have no reason to hide." Which is bollocks. There is a fundamental human right to privacy, which is why all of our homes have shades on the windows." ..... What is the reason then....Shyness of Common Luscious InDecency which might excite/frighten the natives?

    Ok, I can accept that as Sensible. Thank God for Red Lights?

    And surely, the Natural Order of the Status Quo is always Change as nothing stands still and is always Growing.

  10. ChessGeek

    @ Morely Dotes

    That's done it! You've just given them the name for their spy system: Government Observance and Detection:

    "one nation, under G.O.D., with..."

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