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Libertarians applaud Senate vote to strip funding from Pentagon’s domestic surveillance system
January 24, 2003
WASHINGTON, DC -- A vote by the Senate on Thursday to block funding for the Pentagon’s Total Information Awareness program is a victory for ordinary Americans and a setback for the surveillance state, Libertarians say.
“Score one for Americans’ privacy and freedom,†said Geoffrey Neale, national chair of the Libertarian Party. “Now that politicians have been put on the defensive over this un-American spy scheme, it’s time to step up the pressure and bury it once and for all.â€
A proposal by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, to halt funding for the Total Information Awareness (TIA) project passed the Senate by voice vote on Thursday. The massive public surveillance system – spearheaded by former Navy Rear Adm. John Poindexter – has come under scathing attack by civil liberties groups and editorial pages around the country since it was unveiled last year.
TIA would create a centralized database of every American’s electronic transactions, such as credit card purchases, bank transactions, travel data, drivers license information, educational and health records, e-mails and phone calls. Eventually that information would be linked with biometric data such as face recognition technology and digital fingerprints, and provided instantly to law enforcement to detect patterns of terrorist activity, the government says.
“TIA is the electronic equivalent of ordering a 24-hour police stakeout on every American, even though they’re not suspected of doing anything wrong,†Neale said. “This is the kind of behavior that we expect from dictatorships, not democracies.â€
Thursday’s vote indicates the government is reacting to the outcry from Libertarians and others who have been lobbying against TIA, Neale said.
“In November, the Libertarian Party joined an emergency coalition of more than 30 organizations to try to scuttle the project,†he noted. “We signed a letter drafted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center that urged the Senate to adopt an amendment to the Homeland Security Act that would have halted the program.
“Unfortunately, the Senate ignored us, and Bush signed the bill into law on Nov. 25. Obviously the public’s continued input has changed some minds on Capitol Hill, so now it’s time to put the pressure on.â€
The Senate’s action is only a partial victory, Neale noted.
“Because the measure was tacked onto a Senate spending bill, it must survive a House-Senate conference committee and a final vote in both houses before being presented to President Bush,†he said.
“Wyden’s proposal also contains a lot of fine print. For example, instead of killing TIA outright, it requires the Pentagon to issue a report explaining the program and assessing its impact on civil liberties. And it could still be deployed in cases involving ‘national security,’ which was the excuse for creating this monstrosity in the first place.
“But this domestic surveillance system can’t be eformed; it must be removed, period. And we won’t rest until that happens.â€
