More disarming of America in the interests of ...privacy?

Privacy trumps natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and border security.
http://tinyurl.com/ndz2gz
White House to Abandon Spy-Satellite Program
By SIOBHAN GORMAN //WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration plans to kill a controversial Bush administration spy satellite program at the Department of Homeland Security, according to officials familiar with the decision...Democratic lawmakers said it would lead to domestic spying....would have provided federal, state and local officials with extensive access to spy-satellite imagery — but no eavesdropping capabilities— to assist with emergency response and other domestic-security needs, such as identifying where ports or border areas are vulnerable to terrorism....The plans to shutter the office signal Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's decision to refocus the department's intelligence on ensuring that state and local officials get the threat information they need, the official said. She also wants to make the department the central point in the government for receiving and analyzing terrorism tips from around the country, the official added.****So...she's centralizing and cutting back simultaneously so that NO-ONE ELSE can pick up any lacunae. ****...concerns...that the program would violate the Fourth amendment right to be protected from unreasonable searches...concluded the program wasn't worth pursuing...not very useful....Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, wrote to Ms. Napolitano on June 21.
...the police chiefs would be concerned about privacy protections and whether using military satellites for domestic purposes would violate the Posse Comitatus law, which bars the use of the military for law enforcement in the U.S. ... Supporters of the program lamented what they said was the loss of an important new terrorism-fighting tool for natural disasters and terrorist attacks, as well as border security.

"After numerous congressional briefings on the importance of the NAO and its solid legal footing, politics beat out good government," said Andrew Levy, who was deputy general counsel at the department in the Bush administration.