Government Secrecy and Personal Privacy (8/2/2005)

Are you aware that the Bush administration is steadily increasing its privacy but diminishing yours? The administration is currently classifying 125 documents per minute to be kept from public scrutiny. Last year more than 15 million documents were classified. The New York Times reports in a July 12 editorial, “That is nearly double the number of documents classified in 2001 as bureaucrats have invented more amorphous categories like ‘sensitive security information.’ At the same time, the declassification of documents required under the Freedom of Information Act has been choked to a fraction of what it was a decade ago, leaving the government working behind an ever darker, ever denser screen.” In fact, the Bush administration is empowering more offices to classify old information-- to such a ridiculous degree that some of the classified information was already published in school textbooks and Supreme Court decisions.

Thomas Kean, co-chairman of the independent commission on the 9/11 attacks, warns that this official secrecy is actually counterproductive to national security. He said: “ The best ally we have in protecting ourselves against terrorism is an informed public.” Kean points out that the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks was due not to leaks of sensitive information but to the government’s failure to share information between agencies and with the public,.

Meanwhile, as the administration hides its work from public view, Congress considers a new initiative to increase spying on ordinary Americans, despite the already broad powers of the Patriot Act. This new power is known as the administrative subpoena; it would allow the FBI to access anyone’s financial, medical, employment and library records without getting approval from a judge. The target would not be informed. The Senate Intelligence Committee calls it an array of new investigative tools. Currently, when the FBI wants to access an individual’s private records, it usually needs to get the approval of a judge or a grand jury. The proposed new power would allow the FBI, on its own authority, to call people in and force them to produce records. Record holders, such as banks and employers, would be forbidden to tell the person that private records were being handed over. In fact, the Bush team opposes an amendment to the Patriot Act that would force the Justice Department to report to Congress on its data-mining operations. So, how would anyone know if the FBI abuses its authority? Congress would not know what the FBI was doing; the individual would be unaware that he or she was being investigated; the record holders would not know the investigation’s purpose nor be able to tell anyone. Investigating potential terrorism is crucial, but will expanded spy power be misused? For example, would personal information be used to retaliate against someone who disagrees with the administration? Where’s the oversight? The FBI already has ample authority to carry out investigations and does not need to expand its power. In fact, the FBI, testifying before Congress, could not cite any national security investigation that was deterred by a lack of administrative subpoena power.

We American citizens are denied knowledge of what our government is up to, but the government seeks more and more authority to poke around in our lives. Are we losing sight of President Lincoln’s vision of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? Are we becoming a government of the few, by the powerful, for the elite?

- Judith Kohler

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