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ACLU: Government Poised to Surveil Americans on Massive Scale
By Ed Goppelt Friday, 03/14/03 (1047622059667)

The ACLU's Barry Steinhardt painted a picture of a Presidential Administration which moved quickly to curtail civil liberties following the terrorist assaults of 9/11 on the World Trade Center and Washington.

Steinhardt, who was addressing the annual meeting of the Greater Philadelphia ACLU, told a well heeled audience of 100 that "Government surveillance is massive, secret and unsupervised. Technology is developing at the speed of light, but the Law is still in the stone age." Steinhardt is director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty program.

Steinhardt is concerned about how this massive surveillance aparatus constructed since 9/11 would be used against were the war with Iraq to go badly and massive protests to erupt in the country. "The Fourth Amendment is on life support." said Steinhardt. This amendment to our constitution limits the government's power to bust into people's home, either literally or via covert surveillance.

Post 9/11 programs and laws include:

• The Patriot Act, passed 2 months after 9/11 with no public hearings. The Act expands the powers of a secret Surveillance Court. In the FISA Court, which operates out of the top floor of the Justice Building,the usual constitutional protections enjoyed by citizens do not apply.
• TIPS a Justice Dept. initiative that would have encouraged Americans to spy and inform on one another. Conservatives in Congress killed the program which Steinhardt likened to the East German Secret Police. When the East German regime fell in the early nineties, one out of six East Germans were employed as informers on their fellow citizens.
• Total Information Awareness, the brainchild of Iran Contra figure Admiral John Poindexter. TIA seeks to identify terrorists through the collection and correlation of public and private databases.
• Patriot Act 2, legislation drafted by Attorney General John Ashcroft which would further expand the powers of the government to investigate and try people in the secret FISA court. Steinhardt believes that Ashcroft is waiting for the war with Iraq to start before introducing the legislation.

Steinhardt suggested three courses of action:

1. The terms of the debate must be changed to focus on what amounts to a fundamental assault on the American values. "Do we want to live in a surveillance society?"
2. We must enact comprehensive laws to guarantee our privacy like those in many European nations.
3. We must revive the Fourth Amendment.

More info:

• Urge Council to support the repeal the Patriot Act.
• View photos of the meeting.
• Read the ACLU's handout urging repeal of the Patriot Act.
• Read Steinhardt's report Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains

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