Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 19:36:56 -0400
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: BusinessWeek Commentary: Security vs. Civil Liberties
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<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_40/b3751724.htm>

OCTOBER 1, 2001
RETHINKING THE ECONOMY -- POLICY & POLITICS

Commentary: Security vs. Civil Liberties

Journalists, civil libertarians, and other professional alarmists cry 
"Big Brother" too frequently. But none of the privacy controversies 
of recent years--indeed, no event in modern history--has brought the 
prospect of Big Brother closer to reality than the World Trade Center 
horror. The thought that the same attackers might have access to 
biological weapons and other advanced technology forces us to reach 
for an equally powerful and futuristic arsenal with which to strike 
back. Suddenly, proposals are gaining legitimacy that were all but 
unmentionable a month ago. Calls are being made for the establishment 
of databases of information about what citizens look like, where they 
go, and what they do; for the use of surveillance technology to 
monitor the nation's e-mail traffic; and for the imposition of a 
national identification card, to name a few.

Many of these steps may well be necessary. Terrorism is a much 
greater threat than previously imagined. As a result, familiar 
arguments against government surveillance are going to have to be 
reconsidered. Of particular concern is the possibility that there may 
be still more terrorists living in the U.S., raising children, and 
doing an excellent impersonation of ordinary citizens. That means law 
enforcers may have no choice but to treat everybody like a 
suspect--which would justify much wider government surveillance than 
most Americans would have accepted just weeks ago.

NO BLANK CHECK. The increased threat doesn't mean, though, that the 
FBI, the CIA, and other law enforcement agencies should simply be 
given a blank check. Civil libertarians worry about government 
surveillance for good reason: Those in power have used sensitive 
personal information many times in the past to target political 
enemies and harass innocent citizens. This is fundamentally 
anti-American--and it isn't ancient history. Congress passed the 
Privacy Act of 1974 after revelations that the FBI had gathered files 
on everyone from Rock Hudson to Henry Ford to César Chávez. "It is so 
important for the debate to get past the point where one side is 
saying, `We've got to give up civil liberties,' and the other side is 
saying, `We cannot give up civil liberties,"' says University of 
Southern California constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky. "It 
has to be a much more nuanced discussion of what civil liberties are 
being compromised, under which circumstances, and for what gain."

[...]


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