Bush's Secret Army of Snoops and Snitches
U.S. President George W. Bush (c), Attorney General Michael Mukasey (l), and Vice President Dick Cheney (r).Bruce Finley writes in The Denver Post:
Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for "suspicious activity" — and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.More here.
It's a tactic intended to feed better data into terrorism early-warning systems and uncover intelligence that could help fight anti-U.S. forces. But the vague nature of the TLOs' mission, and their focus on reporting both legal and illegal activity, has generated objections from privacy advocates and civil libertarians.
"Suspicious activity" is broadly defined in TLO training as behavior that could lead to terrorism: taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs or conversing in code, according to a draft Department of Justice/Major Cities Chiefs Association document.
All this is anathema to opponents of domestic surveillance.
posted by Fergie @ 7/09/2008 12:40:00 AM
2 Comments:
I don't see the problem with having these "snoops"... all they are doing is reporting suspicious activity so it can be looked into... if the activity is harmless, what's the big deal?
Just my opinion:)
that would have to be the best comment ever left on Fergie's site.... ever.
Ever ever ever.
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