Once upon a time the US Army had a poster featuring a stern-looking Uncle Sam pointing his finger at the viewer and the legend "Uncle Sam wants you."
Nowadays Uncle Sam doesn’t just want you now he wants you, a record of the books you read, to listen in on your phone calls, to read your mail and, most recently, to look into your banking and credit records. According to a report from the New York Times the Pentagon has obtained records for hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage.
And in the guise of the CIA, Uncle Sam (now perhaps wearing a trench coat) is also sending national security letters to gain access to financial records from US companies. The report says that banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions that received the letters typically turned the records over voluntarily.
The FBI had provoked criticism for issuing thousands of such letters since 9/11, but the participation of the CIA and the Pentagon was unknown until now.
The story said the Pentagon used the letters to follow up on intelligence tips. One such tip revolves around a chaplain at Guantanamo Bay who was erroneously suspected of aiding prisoners at the base.
Predictably Vice-President Dick Cheney defended the program:
"The Defense Department gets involved because we've got hundreds of bases inside the United States that are potential terrorist targets," Cheney said.
"The Department of Defense has legitimate authority in this area. This is an authority that goes back three or four decades. It was reaffirmed in the Patriot Act," he said. "It's perfectly legitimate activity. There's nothing wrong with it or illegal. It doesn't violate people's civil rights." (Fox News Sunday via the AP)
Yeah. How many heard the same thing about warrantless wiretapping? "...any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution," President Bush said during a speech in Buffalo, New York on April 20, 2004.
The jury is still out on how constitutional that really was. This technique of investigating banking records may also fail to pass constitutional muster.
Remember when conservatives wanted to stay out of people’s lives as much as possible? At this rate, the administration will be looking for volunteers to peep in the windows of people’s houses. Maybe they will be looking for evidence of some kind of deviant sexual behavior.
But as long as this administration remains in power the threat of more intrusion is always there. You can bank on it.