Long before the attacks of 9-11, America has been living a double life. We are the country of freedoms: freedom of speech, of press, of assembly. Yet we are also a country that has little problem denying these freedoms whenever we feel the need. We deny them to those not living in our country, and at times to our own citizens. Post 9-11 these crimes against freedom and privacy have increased perhaps not dramatically, but technologically.
But first, a history lesson: Americans have a tendency to take a few incidents and turn it into a threat to our National Security. One example is the Espionage Act of 1917.
"The resulting “[v]ague regulations took their aim not at German spies, but at agitators, while legions of informers, private investigators and federal agents combined to root out subversive elements.” Similarly, “[w]hen a spy scare swept the nation near [the end of World War I],” the Attorney General accepted the volunteer “assistance” of the American Protective League. After each volunteer was given a badge similar to a police shield, the APL conducted a zealous campaign against numerous
forms of perceived disloyalty.
Over time, fear of Germans was gradually displaced by fear of Bolsheviks, and raids on suspected Communists became the new vogue. These raids were called “Palmer raids” after the Attorney General who approved them, and they resulted in the arrests of numerous individuals without probable cause. Some people protested the government’s actions, “but they were few and the perceived red threat loomed larger than life.” For this reason, and because Olmsted did nothing to restrict the use of wiretaps, the executive branch employed electronic surveillance whenever it thought that doing so was in the national interest.
In 1949, Americans learned that the Soviets possessed nuclear capabilities. “By the early 1950s . . . Soviet spy rings had been uncovered in the United States, Communists had overrun China and Americans were dying in Korea.” Public awareness of these events, fanned by the diatribes of Senator Joseph McCarthy, combined to create fear of all things perceived to be Communist. “Foreign threats were targeted, but so [too] was a domestic fifth column of Americans who were viewed as potential threats to the national security.”
Not surprisingly, by the mid 1950s, “J. Edgar Hoover [had] announced to the FBI that the Bureau was authorized to enter private property for the purpose of installing electronic surveillance devices, without regard for surreptitious entry and without prior authorization from the Attorney General.” Subsequently, President Johnson “‘modified the standard to permit warrantless wiretapping’” when it was necessary to protect national security. On the surface, the Nixon administration claimed to take the same approach. In reality, though, “the President’s men . . . claimed unprecedented authority to conduct electronic surveillance,” “us[ing] wiretaps to investigate [both] news leaks” and political opponents" (Nathan C. Henderson)
These are only a few examples. Even President Lincoln limited freedom when he censured the press during the Civil War. During WWII, American Citizens of Japanese descent were placed in internment camps. on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible internment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. More than two-thirds of those interned under the Executive Order were citizens of the United States, and none had ever shown any disloyalty. The War Relocation Authority was created to administer the assembly centers, relocation centers, and internment camps, and relocation of Japanese-Americans began in April 1942. Internment camps were scattered all over the interior West, in isolated desert areas of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming, where Japanese-Americans were forced to carry on their lives under harsh conditions. Executive Order 9066 was rescinded by President Roosevelt in 1944, and the last of the camps was closed in March, 1946.
These things seem unthinkable to us today, or I would hope they do. However, the U.S. government is still involved in similar activities. The New York Times has recently reported that the German government is seeking the arrest of 13 C.I.A. agents in connection with the kidnapping and torture and jailing of a German citizen of Lebanese descent. Italy has also put out warrants for the arrest of 26 Americans for the kidnapping of its citizens.
Warrants are not necessary for the police to put a GPS tracker on your car and follow you everywhere you go. Under the Patriot Act, the government can seize your medical records without your knowledge. In fact, not only can they do so without informing you, but your doctor is prohibited from telling you that your records have been searched and/or handed over. The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed. Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords.
This sounds like I'm fear-mongering, I realize this. However, with increases in technology, the laws to protect our privacy are not keeping up. Furthermore, our fear of attack has prompted us to give up freedoms that we would have fought for previously.
And, since I'm a nerd, I will finish with this quote from JRR Tolkien, "For we are attempting to conquer Sauron with the Ring. And we shall (it seems) succeed. But the penalty is, as you will know, to breed new Saurons, and slowly turn Men and Elves into Orcs." We cannot fight fire with fire and not get burned.