Has the world of George Orwell’s “1984” come to pass with the recent passage of the homeland defense bill? Perhaps it doesn’t legislate authoritarianism, but the combination of a denial of information to Americans along with the increased collection of their personal information by the government could lend itself all too well to abuse by a “Big Brother” figure.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush has spearheaded efforts to bring together various people and agencies that may be important as a cohesive unit for combating terrorism.
Although the editorial board is supportive of efforts that would actually enhance people’s safety, many of the measures enshrined in the homeland defense bill, in conjunction with the now nearly year-old USA Patriot Act, should scare Americans.
The Pentagon, under former Adm. John Poindexter, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, has been given permission to keep a massive database, called the Total Information Awareness program, which would collate the personal details of Americans’ lives.
Nearly every purchase people make, every event they attend, every e-mail they send, the departure and destination for every flight they take, will all go into this database. As The Police song goes: “Every breath you take / every move you make / I’ll be watching you.”
The government says the database is benign — it might allow them to “put the puzzle together” before another terrorist attack — but it would still be any KGB or Gestapo man’s dream come true. Its own motto, in fact, shows the danger as well as the potential: “Knowledge is Power.”
More worrisome, though, is that just as more private information is being collected, knowledge about the government is being hidden. The homeland defense bill allows any information now freely available through the Freedom of Information Act to be deemed a “potential security weakness” and brought back under the cloak of secrecy. And the rub: Only the department decides what a “potential security weakness” is, precisely.
These two new proposals show almost limitless bounds for abuse. Will embarrassing information be suppressed under color of “security weakness,” and then anyone requesting that information (for instance, journalists) be hounded through the Total Information Awareness program? Will the next group of “plumbers” getting dirt on a rival political candidate walk into the Pentagon rather than sneak into the Watergate?
Americans have good reason to be afraid of their government given these new marching orders. They should speak out, and the Bush administration should rethink these authoritarian measures before the slope becomes any more slippery.
Editorial: ‘Big Brother’ is watching us; ‘security’ takes privacy away
Daily Emerald
November 24, 2002
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