In my first article on this subject, I explained why President Bush's efforts to shred the Constitution are more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden will ever be. The mindless explanation we keep hearing (recently from Attorney General John Ashcroft on CNN's "Larry King Live") is that our freedom and Constitutional rights must be curtailed in order to defend...our freedom and Constitutional rights.
First, the President tried to enlist hundreds of thousands of postal workers, utility meter readers, cable installers, trash collectors, bank tellers and anyone else who has the opportunity to look into any aspect of your personal life to become de facto government agents under the T.I.P.S. program. Then, Bush commissioned the building of the "Total Information Awareness" project. This program, if successfully built, will allow the government to monitor, track and prepare a database on every single business, travel and financial transaction of everyone in America. John Poindexter has been appointed to lead the development of this program. Clearly, both the T.I.P.S. and T.I.A. programs violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which preserves our right to be secure from any government intrusion into our lives until after the government can show, in court, that there is "probable cause" that we are involved in a crime that has been committed.
Now, the President is working on another way to decimate the Fourth Amendment. As part of the White House's "National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace", President Bush has begun an effort to require all internet service providers to build a centralized system that will allow government surveillance of everyone's email and internet activity (click here to see the report). This program, if successfully put into place, will be built by the internet service providers by order of the government and will be administered by the government. This, again, is being pursued in the name of "homeland security".
Defenders of this monstrosity will probably claim that since internet service providers, not the government, will build the system that it meets Constitutional merit. The idea behind this is that since both the internet service providers and their customers are in the private sector, then the government will not be violating our right to privacy. This claim, of course, is ridiculous. Forcing the internet industry to spy on Americans for the government is the same thing as having the government administering the espionage directly. Both take away Americans' right to be "...secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures," (Amendment IV, US Constitution). Simply put, it is unconstitutional for the government to directly or indirectly search any aspect of our lives without a court-ordered warrant based on "probable cause".
Tragically, this marks George W. Bush's third attempt to remove our Fourth Amendment rights.
Imagine living in a nation where the government can declare you an enemy at any time and for any reason. Now, imagine that government bestowing upon itself the right to either detain you without access to an attorney or simply shoot and kill you outright without any formal charges having been filed, much less without a trial or conviction, even if you are a citizen. Frightening, isn't it?
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