http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/20/main-core/

 


Govt. May Have Massive Surveillance Program For Use In 'National Emergency,'
8 Million 'Potential Suspects'


Last year, former deputy attorney general James Comey revealed
<http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/15/comey-silence/>  that in 2004, he
refused to "certify" the legality of certain aspects of the National
Security Agency (NSA) spy program. Comey witnessed Alberto Gonzales and
Andrew Card try to force a bed-ridden John Ashcroft to approve the program.
Comey, however, did not publicly give specifics as to what program he
opposed.

CAP's Peter Swire wrote on ThinkProgress at the time that Comey's testimony
implied that "other programs
<http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/16/swire-on-gonzales/>  exist for domestic
spying" outside of the NSA
<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec07/gonzales_07-27.html>
program. Radar's Christopher Ketcham suggests that another spy program does
exist: "Main
<http://www.radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2008/05/government_surveillanc
e_homeland_security_main_core_01-print.php>  Core," a program that
authorizes "computer searches through massive [unspecified] electronic
databases" in order to discover "potential threats" in the event of a
"national emergency":

According to a senior government official."There exists a database of
Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are
considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated.
The database can identify and locate perceived 'enemies of the state' almost
instantaneously." . One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans
are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a
national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from
heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even
detention.

These so-called "Continuity of Governance" plans, Radar notes, "are shrouded
in extreme
<http://www.radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2008/05/government_surveillanc
e_homeland_security_main_core_01-print.php>  secrecy, effectively
unregulated by Congress or the courts." "Main Core is the table of contents
for all the illegal information that the U.S. government has [compiled] on
specific targets," said a former military operative. Furthermore, the NSA
domestic surveillance program reportedly "suppl[ies] data to Main Core."

.

 

 

 

 

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