Probably the hardest thing for me to grasp in the debates and emotional rhetoric surrounding the Bush administration’s desire to continuously tap phone calls and Internet transmissions is the naïve belief on the part of those in favor of the warrantless taps that the power will not be abused. It is one thing to gather information it is another to protect that information from abuse.
Think for a minute on driver’s license information. Have you ever wondered who has access to your driving record? Well, let’s count.
1. Everyone at the Department of Motor Vehicles in your state.
2. Everyone in law enforcement in your state.
3. Just about everyone involved in the auto insurance business.
That is a huge list, probably 10,000 people in most states. So, what’s to keep someone from doing a quick search on you if you appear in the news supporting a particular cause? Say you are a vocal supporter of an unpopular candidate for office. Or you *are* a candidate for office. One of those 10,000 looks you up to find out what car you drive, where you live, your driving record, and who knows what else attached to that database? Your privacy has been grossly violated.
Now imagine that you have been identified as one of the 900,000 potential terrorists in the United States. That easily qualifies you for a warrantless wire tap. Folks are we losing our grip here? I don’t care how you count them but if there are more than 100 terrorists on US soil our law enforcement agencies are doing a horrible job and should face a top down revamping. There certainly are not 1,000 terrorists. Therefore the government has incorrectly tagged 899,000 people as potential terrorists. Put aside for now that they are wasting their time and our resources filtering through too many suspects. That large a segment of society represents a profile that violates our citizens’ rights in so many ways, not the least of which unwarranted search and seizure of our personal information.
Three government contractors demonstrated in recent months how security and privacy are not guaranteed. There is no level of government assurance that can be given that data collected on US citizens will not be abused. It is impossible. These government contractors abused their access to passport records of Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and John McCain. They probably were innocently pulling up records for training purposes (as claimed by the State Department) and why not pull up names you know? Political candidates, Jay Lo, Tom Cruise. Where’s the harm in doing that?
The solution? Do not collect the data. When did we abandon all concern for privacy and freedom? If we truly are engaging in a war against terrorists what are we fighting for? Is it not the very freedoms that the terrorists object to? Why violate those freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism?
If you are a government official, if you are the President of the United States, you may feel that you are a trustworthy guardian of the types of power you are asking Congress for. Just remind yourself that you are only going to be in office another nine months. Do you trust your opposition party with this type of access to citizens’ data, phone calls, and records? You shouldn’t.
