So I was thinking about the latest worrisome developments, like John “Iran-Contra” Poindexter running a Defense Department program to set up a vast data mining operation, which will sift through credit card records, medical records, travel records, and email, along with government and legal records, on a vast and random fishing expedition for signs of potential crime.
No prior cause, no warrants, no permission necessary.
William Safire’s tirade against the program, if you haven’t read it yet. Posted by David Weinberger in full, here.
The ACLU’s arguments against it.
And I thought that the one thing we were missing was a real, honest-to-goodness secret police.
Then I saw this. The President’s national security advisors are recommending the creation of a brand new domestic spy agency.