http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70992,00.html
Pentagon to Track American Consumer Purchases
Thursday, November 21, 2002
By Major Garrett
WASHINGTON — A massive database that the government will use to
monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary
tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Edward Aldridge, undersecretary of Acquisitions and Technology, told
reporters that the Pentagon is developing a prototype database to seek
"patterns indicative of terrorist activity." Aldridge said the
database would collect and use software to analyze consumer purchases
in hopes of catching terrorists before it's too late.
"The bottom line is this is an important research project to determine
the feasibility of using certain transactions and events to discover
and respond to terrorists before they act," he said.
Aldridge said the database, which he called another "tool" in the war
on terror, would look for telltale signs of suspicious consumer
behavior.
Examples he cited were: sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air
or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms,
chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or
chemical weapons.
It would also combine consumer information with visa records,
passports, arrest records or reports of suspicious activity given to
law enforcement or intelligence services.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is home to the
Pentagon's brightest thinkers -- the ones who built the Internet.
DARPA will be in charge of trying to make the system work technically.
Rear Adm. John Poindexter, former national security adviser to
President Reagan, is developing the database under the Total
Information Awareness Program. Poindexter was convicted on five counts
of misleading Congress and making false statements during the
Iran-Contra investigation. Those convictions were later overturned,
but critics note that his is a dubious resume for someone entrusted
with so sensitive a task.
Aldridge said Poindexter will only "develop the tool, he will not be
exercising the tool." He said Poindexter brought the database idea to
the Pentagon and persuaded Aldridge and others to pursue it.
"John has a real passion for this project," Aldridge said.
TIAF's office logo is now one eye scanning the globe. The translation
of the Latin motto: knowledge is power. Some say, possibly too much
power. "What this is talking about is making us a nation of suspects
and I am sorry, the United States citizens should not have to live in
fear of their own government and that is exactly what this is going to
turn out to be," said Chuck Pena, senior defense policy analyst at the
Cato Institute.
Pena and others say the database is an even greater violation of
privacy rights than Attorney General John Ashcroft's nixed proposal to
turn postal workers and delivery men into government tipsters. No
matter what protections Congress requires, Pena fears a database big
enough and nimble enough to track the entire nation's spending habits
is ripe for abuse.
"I don't think once you put something like this in place, you can ever
create enough checks and balances and oversight," Pena said.
But proponents say big business already has access to most of this
data, but don't do anything with it to fight terrorism.
"I find it somewhat counter intuitive that people are not concerned
that telemarketers and insurance companies can acquire this data but
feel tremendous trepidation if a government ventures into this arena.
To me it just smacks of paranoia," said David Rivkin, an attorney for
Baker & Hostetler LLP.
The database is not yet ready and Aldridge said it will not be
available for several years. Fake consumer data will be used in
development of the database, he said.
When it's ready, Aldridge said individual privacy rights will be
protected. But he could not explain how the data would be accessed. In
some cases, specific warrants would give law enforcement agencies
access, he said. But in other cases the database might flag suspicious
activity absent a specific request or warrant, and that suspicious
activity could well be relayed to law enforcement or intelligence
agencies.
"I don't know what the scope of this is going to be," Aldridge said.
"We are in a war on terrorism. We are trying to find out if this
technology can work."
Copyright 2005 FOX News Network,
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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