Of course. What else should we have expected?
By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY
Updated 7/20/2006 12:25 AM ET
U.S. intelligence agencies have invested millions of dollars since 9/11 on computer programs that search through financial, communications, travel and other personal records of people in the USA and around the world for connections to terrorism, according to public records and security experts.
The software is designed to find links between terrorism suspects and previously unknown people; track the international flow of money, operatives and materials; and search for clues in the worldwide communications over phone lines, wireless connections and Internet links.
Industry officials, government reports and contracting records do not say specifically how much the CIA and Pentagon have spent to develop, purchase and upgrade such data-mining programs, because that information is classified.
At least five of the data-mining programs were developed under a Pentagon program, called Total Information Awareness (TIA), that Congress disbanded nearly three years ago because of concerns that it threatened personal privacy, according to government records and participants in the projects.
President Bush and administration officials say the searches for terrorists' trails follow the law and don't invade Americans' privacy.
You know ... maybe it's just that we're (clearly) interpreting the whole concepts of "law" or "legal" very differently ... but I don't quite see how a program where Congress explicitly said, "We have concerns about this and are therefore disbanding the program," yet the administration snuck behind everyone's back and kept it going ... I don't quite see how running such a program can be said to "follow the law" when the law says, "This program should not exist." But then, this administration's relationship to law and legal concepts, as well as the English language, is known to be somewhat contrarian and dictatorial.
And for all that people might argue with that concept: if the stated position of the leadership is, "It's legal because we say it is and we will do it regardless of any opposition from other legally constituted authorities" ... that there is dictatorial. I do not say this is a dictatorship, of course; even this administration has not quite gone that far. Not quite.
Although I will be very interested in the lead-in to the next presidential election, indeed. Given the extremes to which this administration has gone in its pursuit of power, it would seem unlikely to let go of power quietly.
Posted by iain at July 20, 2006 04:37 PM
