[Random-bits] When the government knows who calls who

[James Love]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/when-the-government-
knows_b_20980.html

May 14, 2006
The Huffington Post
James Love
When the government knows who calls who

On one Sunday morning news program after another, the NSA data
collection efforts were dismissed on the grounds that the government
only knows who calls who, not what was said. No one on any of the
shows I watched tried to explain why anyone should care if the
government has detailed historical records of who calls whom,
covering millions of Americans.

Let me try:

People call journalists or Congressional offices, often to criticize
what the government is doing, or to criticize what other powerful
parties are doing, including big corporations (or others) with close
ties to the White House. People call physiatrists, debt counselors,
lovers, sex workers, divorce lawyers, bookies, head hunters, close
friends, professional collaborators, and others.

We know that Dick Cheney is a curious guy when he senses hostility.
We know HUD Alphonso Jackson doesn't like to give government
contracts to people who don't like the president. We know the federal
government doesn't like people who leak the wrong stuff to the wrong
people. (Who is calling certain USA Today reporters, for example?)

Can you imagine how interesting it would be to have this type of
information on one of your enemies? To know exactly whom they call,
and who calls them, and exactly when, going back at least five years?
Can you imagine how interesting someone might find these same items,
about you?

We also know there is almost no end to the White House lying about
what the government is actually doing on this front.

So how is this information about who calls whom being used? Who can
you ask? Whom would you trust to tell you?

Do reporters care that all of their calls are likely tracked by the
government?

Can the democrats in the Congress actually explain to the public why
the government collection of this type of information is a recipe for
abuses?

If this is acceptable for Bush, do the republicans think it won't be
done by a Democrat in the White House?

---------------------------------
James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks."  Bill Walton