The Homeland Hack

The privacy and civil liberties office of the U.S. director of national intelligence is considering proposals to exempt counter-terrorism information from some of the restrictions the Privacy Act places on the government. Civil Liberties Protection Officer Alexander Joel told United Press International his office was working on recommendations to President Bush about the rules for the new Information-Sharing Environment mandated by Congress as part of its massive intelligence reform in 2004. "Our thinking is that we would recommend the establishment of a governance structure for privacy in the Information-Sharing Environment," he said, suggesting that at least some of the substantive decisions on the issue might be punted until such a structure was established.