-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 6, 2007 11:28:57 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: How Domestic Intelligence Is (Mis)Handled in Texas
Intelligence database worrying some
09/02/2007 11:10 PM CDT
R.G. Ratcliffe
Austin Bureau
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/stories/
MYSA090307.04B.BigBrother.3220fee.html
AUSTIN — After a commercial airline pilot testified before a
government agency against the construction of a nuclear power
plant, the Department of Public Safety intelligence division
investigated him as a potential terrorist who might fly his
passenger-loaded airplane into such a plant.
The First Unitarian Church of Dallas hosted talks by a gay-rights
group and was labeled by DPS intelligence as the "sponsor of
radical-left groups."
The manager of a West Texas Chamber of Commerce announced that he
would challenge the House Appropriations Committee chairman's re-
election. The man immediately lost his job, and the DPS created a
dossier on him and his wife that was circulated at the Capitol.
The DPS at the time was building a massive intelligence computer
database on Texas residents that would be shared among law
enforcement agencies. Then-Gov. Dolph Briscoe put a halt to it,
saying it appeared to lack safeguards against an invasion of privacy.
All of that occurred in 1974 and embarrassed the DPS nationally.
The agency destroyed the intelligence files and apologized to the
Dallas church. But now the scandal is all but forgotten, and some
civil libertarians fear that it could be repeated.
In the current world of terrorist threats, the Legislature this
year expanded police surveillance powers and declined to put
tighter controls on an intelligence computer database being built
at the insistence of Gov. Rick Perry's office.
Political aspect
Two-thirds of the House voted to remove management of the computer
from Perry's staff and give it entirely to DPS, but the measure was
not part of the final border security law, Senate Bill 11, signed
by the governor. Civil libertarians remain concerned that the
database will be misused in the future, particularly if managed by
a political office such as a governor's.
"I do not take lightly the issue of backpack nuclear bombs. So we
need to do a better job," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth,
an opponent of the new database. "But the over-reach we're seeing
here is phenomenal."
Perry's director of homeland security, Steve McCraw — the driving
force behind the Texas Data Exchange (TDEx) computer — declined to
be interviewed.
Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said the computer is meant to
be nothing more than a centralized system to allow law enforcement
agencies across Texas to share data that already is being kept by
individual police and sheriff's departments.
"It really is just a fundamental 9-11 Commission finding that law
enforcement needs to share information at the state and local level
and federal level. This allows that information sharing," Cesinger
said.
The computer is located at DPS but is managed by personnel under
McCraw in the governor's division of emergency management. The
database is kept by a private company, Apriss Inc., on a computer
in Kentucky.
"We continue to be deeply concerned about the governor's office
having a hand in TDEx and the database being outside the state of
Texas," said Rebecca Bernhardt of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Texas.
Looking at the past
Rep. Burnam said he was a legislative aide at the Capitol in the
1970s when the DPS intelligence scandal broke. He said there is no
reason to believe at the moment that intelligence data is being
misused but that it is something that should concern people.
Burnam said opponents to Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor toll road
system could find themselves under investigation like the airline
pilot who was seen as a potential terrorist because of his
political activity.
Former state Sen. A.R. "Babe" Schwartz, D-Galveston, led the
investigation into DPS intelligence gathering. In a recent
interview, Schwartz said the pilot's case was far from the only one.
"They have a vast repertoire of records on citizens," Schwartz
said. "They collected pure hearsay. They collected accounts from
people who wanted to defame other people."
One of the dossiers kept by DPS was on a former three-term Texas
House member from Houston, Curtis Graves. The information was
gathered from anonymous sources and included a list of people he
sang with while drinking in a Houston tavern.
At the time of the scandal, DPS was preparing to build an
interagency computer file on Texas residents. Briscoe said he was
afraid it would contain noncriminal material that should not be
housed in a database without residents' consent.
"Where it's necessary to get the consent of anyone involved, and I
think that's proper, I rather doubt it's practical," Briscoe said.
Needed tool
The Congressional Research Service earlier this summer prepared a
report to Congress on anti-terrorism efforts at state law
enforcement "fusion centers," including the one run by DPS. A focus
of the report was on computer systems such as TDEx used by the
fusion centers to connect the dots in criminal activity.
The report said such computers represent "state police intelligence
units on steroids" and said they take a more "proactive approach to
law enforcement." It noted a variety of terrorist plots that had
been foiled by interagency cooperation.
But the report also said protecting civil liberties may be a major
problem with such intelligence gathering. It quoted National
Intelligence Director Mike McConnell as saying, "The intelligence
community has an obligation to better identify and counter threats
to Americans while still safeguarding their privacy. The task is
inherently a difficult one."
Cesinger, Perry's spokeswoman, said the governor is not concerned
about potential misuse of the state databases because he believes
law enforcement will use it properly.
"Our law enforcement officials are reasonable and rational, and
collecting information should be seen as a positive thing,"
Cesinger said. "Sharing this information will maximize the
knowledge of our law enforcement officers who are trying to protect
public safety."
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