Brother Gets Bigger

There has long been tension between civil liberties and the need for intelligence that would help protect us. That debate was intensified exponentially by 9/11 and is playing out now in political discussions about such unpleasant topics as torture and domestic eavesdropping. It is against this background that Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Ellen Nakashima tell us this morning that law enforcement agencies are creating a computer-based domestic intelligence system to analyze police information to fight crime and root out terror plots.

The story has generated enormous concern among a strong majority of our Readers Who Comment this morning, although the program also has its defenders. It seems that half the comments directly or indirectly cite George Orwell's famous novel 1984 and the warning within, "Big Brother is watching you!"

There is little question that law enforcement can benefit from the power of computers to make connections between scraps of data and create a picture that could warn of intent to terrorize or commit other crimes. It is also entirely possible that the picture will be false as it applies to specific individuals -- and this morning's discussion takes place around that concern.

We'll start with DEFJAX, who wrote, "Technology and information could be very useful tools in dealing with crime. However, given the painfully consistent history of authorities abusing the power these tools create, this tool is far more likely to end up harming more Americans than it helps..."

gkam said, "The authoritarians and the Fascists already have us."

But staticphoto, with tongue apparently in cheek, wrote, "Oh-my-God: somebody stop them. It just can't be constitutional to allow our law enforcement agencies to cooperate and to (dread) share information! God forbid they actually are given the resources to protect the public...."

cms1 said, "It has always baffled me why the 435 members of the House and the 100 members of the Senate seem to believe they are immune from this invasive technology.
Do they believe their own phones, emails, etc. are NOT being tapped in the interest of retaining political power by the opposing party? They amaze me by their complete willingness to let their own phones be tapped."

And mldostert wrote an extended post that concluded "...No conservative who supports this imposition of a police state can EVER AGAIN claim that he is for limited government."

pgardner1 said, "...the only thing between the police state having the total control over its citizens is a flimsy piece of paper called the constitution. That piece of paper is already so full of holes that it is no longer any obstacle. We are the police; trust us."

rcvinson64 said, "Bye bye freedom. Hello big brother. Bin Laden has done more to loose the hounds of surveillance than anyone else, in our country's history. The terrorists did win. Most frightened citizens just don't realize it yet."

burtonpaul wrote, "There is absolutely no question this system (these systems) will be misused. The concern is how frequently and to what extent they will be misused..."

daniel3715 said, "Maybe this would be a good thing if: Our justice department was not run by right wing zealots, Our supreme court was not run by right wing zealots, Our radical ultra right wing congress had an opposing side, Our executive office wasn't run by a stalinist like Dick Cheney. But this is the way it is. Mr. Orwell, we are almost there."

But Link1 wrote, "...Actually,I'm all for it and the ACLU with all their liberal neo-Stalinist cohorts be damned!Next,we should have,and I'm dead serious here,a national identification.Now there's an invite to the ACLU to start demonstrating in front of my house if I ever heard one."

profmarcus said that, "once again, the wapo eschews context, a shame really, since all that would have been necessary is to link up this page one story and a page two story from today's edition with a page one story from december... now see...? that wasn't so hard, was it...?"

wardropper said, "This is not a "fledgling Justice Department system". It is a fully matured neocon plan to disembowel the Constitution. I wonder if the Washington Post will EVER say things like they are again."

fugeddabowdid sees this huge database as "Another contracting boondoggle. So we've traded in community oriented policing where theoretically the police would better know precisely what IS going on in their communities to what?... You can have the most expensive widgetry in High Tech, but if you can't generate the electricity to runthe damn crap or gas up the SWAT truck or Armor the Humvee, you can thank your pork Barrel Artists for the Keystone Cops Operation."

MPatalinjug said, "My, my, Big Brother is already here! And its presence is justified on no other than "national security," on "protecting the American people." That's what this government feels it needs to do for national security and for protecting the American people: It has to destroy their civil liberties, and it has to trample recklessly on the Bill of Rights!..."

bunkerhill wrote that "The US appears, and its very fearful citizens, to accept that we do not have a Constitution. All this great stuff to intrude into your life and catch terrorists, might work if we had a Constitution. Without that we are just at the mercy of the Gestapo or KGB or whatever name is hung on our internal security forces."

We'll close with my favorite today, from Maddogg who wrote, "At 3 A.M. the White House phone rings: Hello! This is the FBI. Everyone in the US is talking Farsi! OMG"

All comments on this article are here.

By Doug Feaver |  March 6, 2008; 9:50 AM ET Surveillance
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