Shots Across The Bow

If this doesn't scare you,

you weren't paying attention. The gov't wants to monitor every single purchase made by every single American.

Aldridge said the database, which he called another "tool" in the war on terror, would look for telltale signs of suspicious consumer behavior.

Examples he cited were: sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms, chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or chemical weapons.

It would also combine consumer information with visa records, passports, arrest records or reports of suspicious activity given to law enforcement or intelligence services.

Now, in order to combine the two information sets, there must be a wat to correlate them. In other words, your name will be associated with every transaction. Think about that for a second. Every purchase will have to have your name on it, and will be stored in a data base somewhere.

Scared yet?

Then think about this. How are they going to get your name on cash transactions? We're getting to the point where you will have to show ID to buy a pack of gum, unless you use a credit card. Can a national ID card be too far behind?

How is it that the right to privacy allows a woman to abort her unborn child, but doesn't allow me to spend my money without reporting to the feds?

This cannot be allowed.

I can't wait to see what SKB has to say. We disagree in a lot of areas, but I'm betting we're together on this one....

UPDATE: I just sent the following to Senators Frist, Thompson, and Senator elect Alexander, as well as to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Sir:

The Pentagon wants to monitor every single purchase made by every single American. They say that they need this information to combat terrorists. I fail to see how tracking my purchases at WalMart is the key to defeating Al Qaida.

The report goes on to say that consumer information will be added to passport, arrest, visa, and other information. Now, in order to combine the two information sets, there must be a way to correlate them. In other words, my name will be associated with every transaction I make, and that information will be stored in a giant database somewhere, accessible to God only knows whom. That information will be analyzed, looking for “suspicious activity” like large cash withdrawals, car rentals, etc. So, if I decide to take a trip to Washington DC, and rent a car to carry my family, and pay with cash because I don’t have a credit card, I might be a terrorist?

I don’t think so, yet a software algorithm just might reach that conclusion, and my life would be open to increased scrutiny, and a complete violation of my rights against unreasonable searches. How is it that the right to privacy allows a woman to abort her unborn child, but doesn't allow me to buy a pack of gum without reporting to the feds?

I haven’t even begun to talk about the abuses possible through the expansion of this system. As an example, it was expressly forbidden to use the Social Security number as an ID number, but last time I checked, it was required to get a driver’s license; to join the military, where it became your serial number; it is used to identify your credit worthiness; many companies use it as your employee number. In short, it has become a de facto national ID. Now imagine the parallel for this new system. The IRS will instantly be interested in this system to investigate tax fraud; tracking and analyzing cash transactions would be an excellent weapon for them. Imagine the uses local law enforcement would have for this system, tracking stolen merchandise and so on.

There are many possible noble uses for this information, I’m not arguing that, but it goes against the grain of everything we stand for as Americans. It is a massive intrusion on our rights as enumerated by the US Constitution.

It cannot be allowed.

I urge you to act now to stop this rape of our fundamental rights, before we lose the very thing we are fighting to protect.

Our freedom.

Posted by Rich at November 21, 2002 9:23 AM