[ExI] Feel Safer Now?

[Amara Graps]

Gary Miller:
>So what if we're all on this list and they have Carnivore monitoring 
>our voice >and data.  As long as we are not consorting with known 
>terrorists, talking >consistently about bombs, Jihad, drugs 
>(Narcoterrorism), Bin Ladin, etc... Then >the Men in Black will 
>never show up at our door.

I have the impression you don't read or watch the news. Or else the news
you do read/watch is highly filtered. It's not a good idea to be at the
extreme end of naivety.

Reading your words, I'm reminded of this poem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came


EFF (www.eff.org) and Declan McCullagh (http://www.politechbot.com/)
are sources that can keep you up to date about what your government is
doing to you.

For example:
--------------------------------------------
http://w2.eff.org/effector/20/40.php

* EFF Comments on Terror Watch List

Since 2003, the government has been building, testing and stitching
together several disparate terrorist watch lists from various agencies
into one vast, centralized database of suspicious individuals.
Information in this database can be used to decide whether individuals
will be allowed to enter the country, get on an airplane, or become
citizens, or if they will be detained at routine traffic stops. It's a
central factor in other programs, like Secure Flight, the Transportation
Security Administration's proposed plan to "screen" millions of
travelers.

Last week, EFF filed comments on some proposed changes to the Terrorist
Screening Records System (TSRS), which includes the watch list as well
as other records. EFF urged the FBI to reconsider its 2005 decision to
exempt the TSRS from crucial Privacy Act requirements, which makes it
impossible for citizens to use the courts to access or challenge false
or inaccurate data that may have found its way into the system.

EFF's full Comments on the Terror Watch List:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/10/eff-comments-terror-watch-list
--------------------------------------------

My previous post was much more about the government money spent for
anti-terrorist activities. Your tax money spent, that is, instead of,
say research to fight cancer. Your tax money spent to make lists like
the Terrorist Watch List and to put you and me and everyone we know on
it, so that the next time one wants to take a flight to see Cousin
Henry, they will be pulled off of the plane. Or maybe put in prison.
You know, for thinking independently.

You might be comfortable with such a situation, but I have a real
problem with it.


Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado