Would the Gestapo have outsourced?
The United States government is bound by law to handle private information of its citizens in certain ways. Since 9/11 and the Patriot Act, these strictures have loosened considerably, but they're still there. The Privacy Act of 1974 and the Freedom of Information Act, for instance, were strong steps towards a transparent government.
I realize that it's not exactly a news flash, but these protections have been cut down to size quicker than John Bobbit.
Any fool that believes in their government so much that they don't require a check and balance deserves what they get. Being a patriot is not being a lemming; good citizens ask good questions.
But these protections still exist, even though they've been diluted. However, the current administration has a stated policy of using commercial database companies like Acxiom and Experian, presumably to avoid exactly the kind of scrutiny that 30 years of privacy policy attempted to impose on the federal process.
By buying information on U.S. citizens from 3rd parties, government agencies skirt the law. They buy background reports and credit checks on Americans and then incorporate the commercial information into the governmetn data bases, making the unregulated, unchallengable documents part of a target citizen's permanent record. Data doesn't go away, either. Once it's in a database, it will always be there, somewhere.
There are many good articles talking about Bush Administration abuses of the Patriot Act like this one link:
By outsourcing domestic spying, our government has removed itself from checks and disturbed the delicate balance of a government's need to know and a citizen's right to privacy.
History is full of cautionary tales of nations that continually resort to the utlitarian argument of the means justifying the ends. They don't end well. These protections are important and working with the annoyances of compliance with civil liberties is the price that bureaucrats must pay, just as the occasional uncomfortable scrutiny is the price that WE must pay to be free.
Databases are lists. Outsourcing the creation of these lists to circumvent oversight does not legitimize the list makers. And these lists are dangerous.
I do not trust those who scribble in secret and shroud their motivation in jingoism.
All good ethnic cleansings start with lists.
Posted on November 09, 2005
