Stalled in the U.S. Senate is an intelligence system capable of abusing the civil rights of Americans and saving them from terrorist attacks. It could be the difference between another Sept. 11, 2001, or the arrest of someone like Jose Padilla, the suspected dirty bomber.
Using information from job permits, car rentals, credit-card purchases, e-mails, regular mail, bank statements, drivers’ licenses, tax forms, birth certificates, airline travel history, accident history, medical records, job applications, bankruptcy history and a plethora of other documents, the government hopes the Total Information Awareness Office will be able to decipher suspicious patterns and set off a red flag alerting authorities to the next terrorist threat.
The TIA Office is a branch of the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Since news about the system broke, it has been the subject of intense scrutiny among not only the public but also the federal government itself.
The program has enormous implications. First of all, it makes the Patriot Act look like your bus-rider rules. While the Patriot Act lets the government wiretap your house, the TIA system would log every citizen’s waking moment. While these Orwellian technologies seem imposing and dangerous, they could provide some benefit if used correctly.
The technology at its present state is not perfect. It relies on a preconceived pattern to pinpoint and detect suspicious terrorist activity. With this in mind, it would likely miss a terrorist who bucks the norm. And currently, any well-minded terrorist would not be applying to flight schools.
One of the chief arguments against a system like this is the compilation of an immense database that might be vulnerable to hacking, abuse or the infringement of civil rights.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said, “Our country must fight terrorists, but America should not unleash virtual bloodhounds to sniff into the financial, educational, travel and medical records of millions of Americans. Congress ought to step in and put the brakes on this program now, before it grows unchecked and unaccountable.”
The problem with this argument is that a private-sector system like this has existed for years now. Choicepoint of Atlanta, along with several other companies, have compiled and provided information from credit-card companies, banks, government agencies, and more into a database accessible to police departments, government agencies and just about anyone else. If you have a credit card, you most likely have a folder on the Choicepoint network.
In fact, had a system like this been implemented before Sept. 11, it might have actually prevented the attacks. Consider this: In the days leading up to Sept. 11, the now infamous “Phoenix memo” warned of terrorists taking flying lessons. This memo was not taken seriously and was limited in its distribution. Meanwhile, agents in Minnesota were gathering information regarding Zacarias Moussaoui. Add the FBI’s terrorist watch list, which included Moussaoui. In the wired world of TIA, this would set off a red flag that a suspected terrorist on the FBI’s watch list was taking part in flight lessons immediately after an FBI memo was sent out alerting authorities to this very threat.
Despite the possible benefits, the system has stalled in Congress and is being threatened by the Wyden amendment, whose sole aim is to cripple TIA. Total Information Awareness is nothing more than an extended version of Choicepoint, and Choicepoint is something we have lived comfortably with for years. The difference between Choicepoint and TIA is that Choicepoint has no mechanism for preventing hijackers from plowing airliners into the World Trade Center or pinpointing when a terrorist cell might flare up.
The sound of further government intrusion into our lives is one that will surely meet resistance amongst civil liberties groups and everyday citizens. However, while TIA definitely has a wider scope than Choicepoint, its goals are broader and more respectable. If I’m not conniving to blow up a building or hijack an airliner, I shouldn’t be worried about the government looking into my life.
The information to prevent another terrorist attack is out there. Bringing the pieces together to combat that threat is the challenge we now face. In the weeks and months after Sept. 11, there was widespread debate over how our intelligence failed and persistent calls to reform the intelligence community. Throughout all of this, our intelligence was doing their job. They had the information, but bringing it together in a coordinated fashion among the government agencies was their ultimate downfall. TIA provides a coordinated framework in which these agencies can cooperate.
Derek Montgomery ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in journalism and political science.
