More on the Surveillance Society

Looking at some stuff that I have been sitting on, I note that I have quite a backlog of stuff related to the Federal government spying on us.

• Under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act allows the FBI to obtain "vast" amounts of personal information for a United States citizen merely by showing "relevance" to a "foreign intelligence or terrorism investigation."^[1] As Mr. Schneier points out, our government was founded on the idea of checks and balances. While we must have anti-terrorism, we cannot afford to do so in a way that compromises that system. Otherwise, we open ourselves up to another evil: that of an abusive government.
• The Department of Defense is interested in the activities of "perfectly legal, peaceful, anti-war protesters."^[2] According to the same post, the National Security Agency has also been eavesdropping on us. Personally I would be more inclined to believe they always have been, but we have confirmation and a paper trail for the present time at very least. Both are a concern. In recent years, we have basically allowed anything that is labeled an "anti-terrorism" measure. That is dangerous, partly as terrorism is poorly defined, and partly because all of these measures will catch, and will be used for, far more than just terrorism. Consider that the original legislation for Social Security Numbers specified that they not be used as Identification by any other agency or by any State or Local government. I fear that having rolled back, disabled, crippled, and ignored the protections against governmental abuse of citizens, we will learn to our peril that they were not superfluous, but highly necessary.
• More information is available on the NSA eavesdropping here.^[3] No doubt the Democrats will try to make something of this. They should. Though I voted for Bush, though I have in fact voted Republican in every election I have voted in, I do not like or support this. The law is the law, and we must hold elected officials to it. Further, the fact that this sort of activity is nothing new, was practiced by Democrats and Democratic Presidents as well, does not excuse President Bush in any way shape or form.

A better, fuller explanation of why this is important, and why this is significant is available from Mr. Schneier here.^[4] I normally would likely write more on this. However, my own words seem to be dwarfed by Mr. Schneier's in this case, and my mind too full of things nearer to home. He writes at length on the issue, because it needs and deserves that length.