ACLU on resurrected TIA program

Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, along with her colleagues held a conference call for reporters and bloggers today on the ACLU's response to the Wall Street Journal's report that the Pentagon had carried on with the Total Information Awareness program (TIA) in direct violation of a Congressional prohibition of the program.

This graphic from the ACLU shows the scope of the programs--that we know about--included in the TIA. In other words, how extensively Americans are being monitored.

The elements that reportedly make up the new spying encompass a variety of mass surveillance and data mining programs about which the ACLU has previously warned, including:

• TIA and other data mining programs.
• The NSA’s illegal wiretapping program, the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP).
• The Patriot Act’s broadening of FBI power to collect third-party personal information without a subpoena through Section 215 searches and National Security Letters.
• The Treasury Department’s expanded surveillance of financial transactions through Cash Transaction Reporting and Suspicious Activity Reporting.
• The CIA’s illegitimate access to the SWIFT database to monitor international financial transactions.
• DHS’s efforts to increase collection and monitoring of airline passenger data.
• Partnerships between these government agencies and private sector entities to collect and monitor customers’ data and transactions.

As Fredrickson said in the conference call, this is just the tip of the iceberg in these programs--no one outside of the administration knows just how monstrous the berg below the surface is. To that end, the ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act request specifically focused on the programs brought into the light by the WSJ report.

More importantly for the immediate term and the ongoing FISA debate, Fredrickson emphasized the importance of the Congress pausing now on any more action on intelligence.  That means sticking with the status quo on FISA and finally investigating this incredible violation of law.

As she said, Congress owes this investigation to itself. Congress killed the TIA program back in 2003 with the Wyden Amendment, or at least assumed that it had. The administration has resurrected the program in every aspect, and its tentacles reach into absolutely every aspect of our lives. Our medical and financial records, our e-mail correspondence, our wired and wireless phone calls. The ACLU has more in this diary.

In direct violation of Congress's will, and the Constitution. Is Congress going to continue to turn a blind eye to these violations, or are they finally going to investigate?