Don’t do the happy dance yet
Kevin over at Leanleft brings to our attention that:
House and Senate negotiators have agreed that a Pentagon project intended to detect terrorists by monitoring Internet e-mail and commercial databases for health, financial and travel information cannot be used against Americans.
I read a book once called The Puzzle Palace, which detailed some inner workings of the NSA. Per the book, the NSA was forbidden by law from intercepting transmissions by US citizens. The result was that the NSA did it anyway and tried to cover it up. Evidence later came to light indicating such. Such an organization with the capabilities to track this data is subject to abuse by immoral employees or corrupt administrations. So, even if the bill passes, the resulting agency has potential to infringe on our rights given the corruption and bureaucracy inherent in government.
So, until TIA is dead in the sense that it will never come up for a vote, I’m still concerned.
