Mystery legislation

Congress' new blueprint for U.S. intelligence spending includes a mysterious and expensive spy program that drew extraordinary criticism from leading Democrats, with one saying the highly classified project is a threat to national security.

In an unusual rebuke, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday that the spy project was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive."

Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators — Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon — refused to sign the congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities.

[...]

Each senator — and more than two dozen current and former U.S. officials contacted by The Associated Press — declined to further describe or identify the disputed program, citing its classified nature. Thirteen other senators on the Intelligence Committee and all their counterparts in the House approved the compromise.

Despite objections from some in the Senate, Congress has approved the program for the last two years, Rockefeller said.

The Senate voted Wednesday night to send the legislation to President Bush. The bill is separate from the intelligence overhaul legislation that also won final congressional approval Wednesday.

  Yahoo article

Expect a signature. But it's secret.

The rare criticisms of a highly secretive project in such a public forum intrigued outside intelligence experts, who said the program was almost certainly a spy satellite system, perhaps with technology to destroy potential attackers. They cited tantalizing hints in Rockefeller's remarks, such as the program's enormous expense and its alleged danger to national security.

A U.S. panel in 2001 described American defense and spy satellites as frighteningly vulnerable, saying technology to launch attacks in space was widely available internationally. The study, by a commission whose members included Donald H. Rumsfeld prior to his appointment as defense secretary for President Bush, concluded that the United States was "an attractive candidate for a Space Pearl Harbor."

Great. Look for it. With BushCo instigation. And just when all the Red Staters have finally had enough of BushCo's criminal activity, are jobless and can't even get any welfare, maybe we'll be 45 minutes away from an attack from outer space.