White House Privacy Board Says It's All Good

By Ryan Singel April 23, 2007 | 7:04:00 PM

Categories: Privacy, Sunshine and Secrecy

The White House's hand-picked Privacy and Civil Liberty Oversight Board released its first-ever report to Congress Monday, finding that controversial programs such as government watch lists and the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program do not impinge on Americans' civil liberties. While the 42-page report (.pdf) contains few details on how the programs work or what internal controls are in place, the five-member board found that the NSA spooks who spent more than 5 years secretly monitoring Americans' overseas phone calls and emails without court orders are "actively committed to protecting privacy and civil liberties of U.S. Persons."

The panel, which is part of the White House's executive office, also said that oversight of government interrogation techniques, CIA 'black prisons,' and renditions of non-Americans to certain torture in other countries is beyond their scope of duty.

The panel, created by Congress in 2004, held its first public meeting in December 2006, where it refused to take questions from the media and declined to share what it had learned about the government's snooping program aimed at Americans' overseas communications.

The board told Congress it has taken the lead in getting agencies to help people who are snagged by the government's sprawling array of watch lists, that the Pentagon has fixed its spy database that included information on peaceful anti-war protestors, and that the government's current e-passports, with unencrypted RFID chips, do not raise significant privacy concerns.

Next year, the board plans to tackle the Automated Targeting System -- the border program that rates every international traveler's threat level; the FBI's misuse of self-issued subpoenas called National Security Letters; and look into federal data mining efforts. The board is headed by Carol Dinkins, a former campaign treasurer for President Bush and a partner at the former law firm of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/0 ... e_pri.html