“There's a long and troubling history of military surveillance in this country,” Healy adds. “That history suggests that we should loathe allowing the Pentagon access to our personal information.”
In her book Army Surveillance in America, historian Joan M. Jensen noted, “What began as a system to protect the government from enemy agents became a vast surveillance system to watch civilians who violated no law but who objected to wartime policies or to the war itself.”
“It’s a fucking nightmare,” says a Congressional aide who recently obtained information on the program for his boss but asked not to be identified because he fears retaliation from the Bush administration. “We’re collecting more information on Americans than on real enemies of our country.”
Sen. John Rockefeller says he raised concerns more than two years ago about increased spying on Americans but – as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee – could not share that concern with colleagues.
"For the last few days, I have witnessed the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney-General repeatedly misrepresent the facts," Rockefeller said last week. When he was first briefed about the activity in 2003, we sent a handwritten note to Vice President Dick Cheney outlining his concerns.
"I am retaining a copy of this letter in a sealed envelope in the secure spaces of the Senate intelligence committee to ensure that I have a record of this communication," Rockefeller told Cheney. However, Rockefeller says now, “my concerns were never addressed, and I was prohibited from sharing my views with my colleagues.”
Missouri Congressman William Clay worries that the Bush Adminstration is skirting the law by letting private contractors handle the data mining.
"The agencies involved in data mining are trying to skirt the Privacy Act by claiming that they hold no data," said Clay. Instead, they use private companies to maintain and sift through the data, he said.
"Technically, that gets them out from under the Privacy Act," he said. "Ethically, it does not."
I Suspect They Are Accumulating Info On People Like Me
I served my country for 20 years in the U.S. Navy and retired honorably. I served during Viet Nam, but not in country. I was an integral part of the Naval Forces performing the blockade of Cuban coastal waters during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I flew missions as an aircrew member from an aircraft carrier. I held a Top Secret military clearance for the majority of my military service years. I must admit to numerous speeding violations over the years, but nothing more serious.
I mention my military service because on four recent occasions in which I have booked commercial airline flights, I discovered each time that my name had been placed on a list referred to as “A Person To Watch”. Each time I was pulled from the line of passengers and taken to a special person who had access to look my name up on another computer. When I inquired as to how my name came to be on the list, the airline official told me to check with the Transportation Security Administration’s web site for the information. TSA told me I could request the removal of my name after submitting certain certified and notarized documents proving my identity. This list contains approximately 12 documents to choose from.Then they tell me there is no certainty of the removal of my name from the list. On each occasion I was eventually permitted to board the aircraft for the flight.
My point is that the politicians have reached a threshold of such power abuse that even someone with a record such as mine has no rights. These cowards in Congress that won’t fight this war they have created themselves are eroding our rights as citizens at every opportunity.
I suppose they are monitoring these statements as well.
Rudy Sullivan
U.S. Navy (Retired)
Lakeland, Florida
by
Rudy (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Wednesday, December 28, 2005 at 10:34:28 AM
