Big Brother or Homeland Security???

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The Homeland Security Act was being debated as late as Monday in the US Senate after breezing through the US House by a vote of 299-121.

It’s unclear whether this new department will give the United States any more advantage in fighting terrorism on the domestic front. About the only definitive positive item to emerge from this bill as of now is that the federal workers in the department will not be unionized, keeping the workers from an organized work stoppage and allowing the current President and future Presidents discretion to move workers within the department and hire and fire workers at their discretion.

Last week an item in the bill came to light that is more frightening than a unionized federal work force in charge of our homeland security. According to William Safire of the New York Times there is language tucked into the bill that would allow the federal government to track nearly every move you make.

Huh?

According to Safire, “Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as a virtual, centralized grand database.”

Add these to the list also: Your credit records, your employment history and any marriage or divorce records you have. Your gun registrations, your credit history and credit card accounts will be cross-referenced and matched with your social security number and drivers license information.

Taking a trip on an airline? The government will know. Renting a movie at the video store or on pay per view? They will know. Checking out a book from you public library? They’ll be watching there also. A new government super computer will monitor anything that you do that can be monitored by a private or public computer.

Total Information dossiers on 300 million Americans.

Who is up to this? The FBI? Attorney General John Ashcroft? No.

It will be a Pentagon project. It’s called the “Total Information Awareness” program and would be run by the Defense Department. It would be authorized to collect every type of available public and private data in this “centralized grand database.” The plan is to have computers and analysts use all this available information to determine patterns of behavior in order to detect and identify terrorists and then thwart those plans.

That’s a great idea to use against foreigners but not at the cost of an individual American’s privacy.

The authors of the Homeland Security Act were quick to defend their bill. They came out with a statement over the weekend stating: “The bill contains adequate provisions to protect privacy rights.”

It is said to have a statutorily created privacy officer whose job would be to act as a watchdog over issues such as the snooping cross-referencing computer.

That’s a pretty tough sell considering the technology available. The New York Times technology writer John Markoff described it in detail in an article earlier this month.

“The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt for terrorists around the globe — including the United States.”

How can one officer keep an eye on all of this?

It’s unlikely that the ‘privacy officer’ could monitor this without his own super-computer system. Unless the privacy officer has that kind of technology at his disposal he would be overmatched. That means if the information from Safire is accurate, and it seems to be, this plan is an outrage. Americans cannot trade their individual liberties for the illusion of safety. Benjamin Franklin said it well in 1759: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Franklins quote would likely go into his ‘file’ under Total Information Awareness. This writing would likely go into my ‘file’ and when you read this column online it will go into your newly created ‘file’. What an outrage!

The Pentagon should not be in the business of spying on innocent American citizens electronically.

No matter how difficult America’s situation in battling terrorism and enemies within our borders seems individual American liberties must never be compromised. No matter what incredible technology is available it must never be used against law abiding American citizens.

No illusion of security is ever worth a right held so sacred.

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Queenie

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Plus, as an American Taxpayer, I'd have to help fund this project. I know what I am doing at every moment, and it doesn't cost me a cent! Wink

I must agree, though. When is this going to end? Looks like Orwell was right, just a few years early.

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PFS (Prety F'ing scary!)

Frightened Inmate #2

Will they be counting my calories too? I'd like to have access to that.

Member

I wonder if they'll know how many times that I personally flush my toilet...and if the reason was for a #1 or a #2. Stalker

On a good note Razz

, this should pave the way to get rid of all those popup advertisements you get from some websites. Since every window that pops up on your screen will be tracked by the U.S. Government and more likely used against you, it seems fitting that these involuntary popups should cease to exist in order to give us law-abiding citizens a fair chance.

Adjunct

just for the record we do not snoop around people we shouldnt there are to many people that know when we snoop
if you are a good decent citizen nothing to fear

heck your credit card companies know a lot also
so does your bank, your grocery store, your video store

if it helps us get a bad guy then good

i have nothing to hide and nothing to fear

bad guys beware

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Big Brother or Homeland Security???

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