Cool Mac Gear

Special Report

We wish we hadn't read William Safire's column in the New York Times, but we did, and now we're ready to scream. So will you when you read what Admiral Poindexter, rehabilitated architect of the infamous Iran-Contra scheme, has in mind for every one of you, all in the name of fighting terrorism.

The Homeland Security Act currently sliding easily through what's left of the national deliberative body known as the U.S. Congress has a little-noticed provision that will eviscerate your personal freedoms if not amended before final passage. According to the respected columnist:

"If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:

Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend &emdash; all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as 'a virtual, centralized grand database.'

To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you &emdash; passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance &emdash; and you have the supersnoop's dream: a 'Total Information Awareness' about every U.S. citizen."

The Homeland Security Act as now written budgets $200 million for Poindexter, currently head of something called the "Information Awareness Office" of what Safire calls the "otherwise excellent" Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to compile computerized dossiers on every single U.S. citizen.

"Poindexter is now realizing his 20-year dream: getting the 'data-mining' power to snoop on every public and private act of every American."

According to Safire, editorial writers and lawmakers have so far failed to grasp the significance of what is about to happen. The House of Representatives has already rolled over and played dead, but the Senate has yet to act. Consider this a personal plea to contact your senators today and send them Safire's article. This is not a liberal vs. conservative issue, this goes to the heart of what America is all about, so act now while there is still time.

Email This Article - Comment On This Article

Email This Article - Comment On This Article

Cool Mac Gear