Watching your every move: comprehensive government database and new invasive technologies threaten our system of checks and balances, presenting an unprecedented potential for tyranny. (Cover Story: On the Home Front).

There is no place to run and no place to hide in the 1998 techno-thriller, Enemy of the State, where Robert Dean (played by Will Smith) is an innocent everyman framed for murder. The man who has framed him is a sinister top official with the National Security Agency (played by Jon Voight). Faster than you can say "Resistance is futile," Voight's character has the awesome technology of the near-total surveillance state targeting the hapless fugitive, as teams of NSA agents relentlessly pursue. Supercomputers, data banks, sensors, transmitters, microphones, bugs, surveillance cameras, satellites, helicopters, planes, vans, informants, and a nonstop torrent of technological wizardry are deployed to capture the quarry. The walls have eyes and ears. So does virtually everything else: the ceilings, floors, chairs, streets, trees, shirt buttons, etc. Against such overwhelming odds, resistance does indeed seem futile, and escape impossible.

Tapping the same man-against-the-Orwellian-state theme, the 1997 suspense flick Conspiracy Theory features a New York cabbie (played by Mel Gibson) on the run from a super-secret federal agency employing Gestapo-like methods. In one frightful scene, the government agents hunting Gibson's character are able to zero in on his exact location because of a purchase he makes. Because of his programming by the agency, Gibson's character is obsessed with the book Catcher in the Rye. So, when the agency's super snooper computer jockeys detect a sale of a copy of the book in midtown Manhattan, they are sure they have found their man. Within minutes, agents are jumping out of black vans and rappelling out of helicopters to surround and search the bookstore.

Reality Overtakes Fiction

Far-fetched Hollywood psycho-drama? Not anymore. The political and commercial applications of invasive surveillance technologies, together with the collecting and processing of vast quantities of data made possible by the Internet and ever-faster computers, have brought such frightening scenarios uncomfortably close to the realm of possibility. Citing security imperatives in the fight against terrorism, government officials are pushing aggressively to adapt and deploy these technologies in ways too closely resembling the terrifying total state of George Orwell's dystopian world in 1984. In fact, a couple months ago alarms sounded in some of the major U.S. media, warning that Big Brother is on the horizon, if not already on the doorstep. New York Times columnist William Safire, for instance, warned in a November 19th broadside:

If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:

Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend--all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."

To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you--passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the FBI, your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance - and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen....

This is one of those rare events where the Times is on the mark, at least in terms of the most important aspects of the story. The Total Information Awareness (TIA) program that has caught the attention of Mr. Safire and others is no small thing. It is a real program with the potential to harness present and developing technology for creating a totalitarian surveillance state far beyond what Big Brother was capable of in Orwell's nightmare world. In the context of how federal police powers have vastly expanded since 9-11, the TIA program becomes even more alarming. Where Safire and many others erred was in stating or suggesting that plans for TIA were explicitly contained in the Homeland Security Act. They were not; TIA was already being developed; how far it had already gone toward implementation (and where it stands now) remains an open question. An audit by the Defense Department's inspector general, as called for by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), may answer that all-important question.

TIA is a project of the Information Awareness Office (IAO) in the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Heading up the IAO is Rear Admiral John Poindexter, national security adviser to President Reagan. Poindexter is best remembered for his felony convictions as the ringleader in the arms-for-hostages fiasco that became known as the "Iran-Contra" scandal.

Incredibly, Admiral Poindexter's IAO adopted a logo and motto tat seem to have popped right out of the Orwell grab basket. The logo features a pyramid with the all-seeing eye, its unblinking gaze sending out searching beams covering the whole world. True, this symbol can also be found on the common one dollar Federal Reserve Note, but the story of its occult origins and how it ended up on the dollar bill during FDR's socialist New Deal is a fascinating, if ominous, one. (See the article on page 13.) Combined with the agency's Latin motto, "Scientia Est Potentia" ("Knowledge Is Power"), it projects a very foreboding image--especially considering the intrusive surveillance and collection strategies that TAO is testing.

According to the IAO's own mission statement, the TAO "will imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness useful for preemption; national security warning; and national security decision making."

The IAO's vision statement asserts: "The most serious asymmetric threat facing the United States is terrorism, a threat characterized by collections of people loosely organized in shadowy networks that are difficult to identify and define. TAO plans to develop technology that will allow understanding of the intent of these networks, their plans, and potentially define opportunities for disrupting or eliminating the threats."

Aspiring to "total information awareness" means developing "revolutionary technology for ultra-large all-source information repositories," which would contain data from myriad sources to create a "virtual, centralized, grand database." This database would hold information contained in current databases such as financial records, medical records, telecommunication records, travel records, criminal records, educational records, etc. A key component of the TIA project is focused on developing "data-mining" tools to sort through the massive amounts of information to find suspicious patterns and associations. Patterns and associations potentially pointing to terrorists, for instance.

In light of 9-11 and continued terrorist threats, many people seem willing to countenance draconian security measures unthinkable just two years ago. ha Christian Science Monitor article for December 3, 2002, Lee McKnight, a professor of information studies at Syracuse University, downplays the potential dangers for abuse by programs like TIA and plays up their benefits. "We're talking about data-mining systems that credit-card companies in particular use," McKnight told the Monitor. "Lots of this they can buy off the shelf" According to McKnight, the government could have utilized technology used by credit-card companies to alert airport personnel to some of the hijackers boarding planes on September 11th.

That may be true, but there are many things wrong with these blithe assurances, including:

* The data-mining systems under testing and development for TIA are not merely "off the sheff" commercial programs; they are far more powerful.

* Data mining is just one part of the TIA program; other elements of the program include new technologies to identify, monitor, and track virtually everyone, not just criminals.

* Credit-card companies and other commercial data collectors and processors present a serious enough threat to privacy, but they are more subject to criminal and civil penalties for abuse of this data than are government officials.

* Comprehensive government databases and invasive technologies wedded to the power of badges, guns, courts, and jails present a formidable threat to constitutional checks and balances and an unprecedented potential for tyranny.

Certainly officials could employ data mining against terrorists planning suicide bombings. But they could also turn this technology on law-abiding citizens whom databases show as gun owners. That, in fact, is already happening. A multi-jurisdictional task force of county and state police officers, together with federal agents of the Secret Service and ATE, is using the nearly 100,000 tips from the October 2002 sniper hunt to track down possible gun-law violators. A January 3, 2003 Washington Times story quoted ATE spokesman Michael Bouchard as saying that calls from neighbors, such as, "The guy next door has a couple handguns," may provide the basis for an investigation. The same article reported Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department spokesman Nancy Demme as saying an "intensive crackdown would begin in the county in a few weeks."

Using the same iron-fisted logic, government officials could target home-schooling parents who have not registered and complied with newly passed restrictive legislation. Or people failing to comply with mandatory vaccinations. Or pastors violating "hate laws" by preaching against homosexuality. Or people tardy in paying their taxes, traffic citations, alimony, or child support. Or those who have purchased gold or silver coins. (During the New Deal, remember, private ownership of gold was outlawed and President Roosevelt had all the gold rounded up.) The potential for tyrannical abuse is mindboggling.

The IAO's concept of "total information awareness" goes far beyond mining current databases and the real-time tapping of commercial transactions, however. Some of the projects that the IAO is pursuing sport names like: Babylon; Genisys; Genoa; Wargaming the Asymmetric Environment; Bio-Surveillance; Translingual Information Detection, Extraction and Summarization; and Human Identification at a Distance, or HID. The HID program is developing advanced facial identification capabilities, biometrics, iris scans, and long-distance optical and imaging technology. HID is also working on a computerized gait recognition program to identify people by the way they walk or run.

Adm. Poindexter reportedly approached the Defense Department with the TIA proposal following 9-11. Poindexter, then consulting in private industry, was brought back into his old Pentagon environs. At first glance, the TIA's reported budget of $10 million appears so small and inconsequential that some may see little cause for concern. However, a close examination of the books by researchers at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reveals that the budget for LAO programs associated with TIA really amounted to appropriations of $240 million for the three-year period of fiscal years 2001-2003. Even this price tag does not begin to hint at the program's significance, however. Once fully in place, pursuing "total information" would mean a constant and insatiable vacuuming of everything, as TIA programs eventually link the massive computer systems and databases of the NSA, CIA, DIA, FBI, DOD, IRS, HUD, HHS, etc. to commercial and state databases.

Contemplating the full implications of the IAO's lust for omniscience and omnipotence ("Knowledge is Power," recall), a more appropriate symbol for the agency's logo might be the fiery, lidless, all-seeing eye of the Dark Lord Sauron, the satanic sorcerer of the current blockbuster movie trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Sauron's unsleeping eye "Sees all, pierces all, knows all," says Saruman, Sauron's evil underling. That, after all, would seem to be the stated purpose of Adm. Poindexter's project.

Down the Memory Hole

When public concern caused officials to scrutinize Poindexter's IAO, the budding agency, getting a taste of its own medicine, developed a sudden case of bashfulness. Without explanation, the IAO last December removed its logo and motto from its Internet website. Gone too were the LAO biographies of staff members. Why the sudden purging? We tried to find out, but Adm. Poindexter has not made himself available for interviews and the IAO Public Affairs office did not respond to our calls. Fortunately, THE NEW AMERICAN and other news organizations had archived these and other DARPA/IAO web pages. The agencies cannot now credibly claim that their disturbing logo, motto, and proposals, which have since disappeared, were just figments of our imagination.

Responding to growing concern over the dangers lurking in the TIA program, Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) inserted language into the Congressional Record on November 19th that many have cited as an important victory in the battle against Big Brother. Lieberman states: "Nothing in this legislation [the Homeland Security Act] should be construed as requiring or encouraging HSARPA (Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency) to adopt or replicate any specific programs within DARPA, such as the Total Information Awareness Program, or as conferring HSARPA with any additional authority to overcome privacy laws when developing technologies for information-collection." But this is merely Senator Lieberman's interpretation of the legislation, not a legally binding, ironclad assurance against abuses and usurpations by the already existing IAO/TIA bureaucracy. The legislation leaves Adm. Poindexter's Orwellian agency still intact.

Moreover, we do not know what hidden dangers may be lurking in the new law's convoluted text, signed by President Bush on November 25, 2002. On November 13th, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) warned his House colleagues that the mad rush to pass the Homeland Security Act was fraught with danger:

Mr. Speaker, when the process of creating a Department of Homeland Security commenced, Congress was led to believe that the legislation would be a simple reorganization aimed at increasing efficiency, not an attempt to expand federal power. Fiscally conservative members of Congress were even told that the bill would be budget neutral! Yet, when the House of Representatives initially considered creating a Department of Homeland Security, the legislative vehicle almost overnight grew from 32 pages to 282 pages--and the cost had ballooned to at least $3 billion. Now we are prepared to vote on a nearly 500-page bill that increases federal expenditures and raises troubling civil liberties questions. Adding insult to injury, this bill was put together late last night and introduced only this morning. Worst of all, the text of the bill has not been made readily available to most members, meaning this Congress is prepared to create a massive new federal agency without even knowing the details. This is a dangerous and irresponsible practice.

Unfortunately, Dr. Paul's House and Senate colleagues refused to listen to reason and to apply constitutional principles to the legislation to create the new federal security behemoth. Besides the dangerous features of the bill that are already obvious,* we can be virtually certain that we will discover even more in the weeks and months ahead.

But we don't have to wait for that to see that we are already racing toward becoming a police state. Since the September 11th attacks, the Bush administration, Congress, and local governments have adopted (or attempted to implement) numerous measures moving us giant steps in that direction, such as:

* Millions of citizen-spies. President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft attempted to launch Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System), which envisioned a "national system for reporting suspicious and potentially terrorist-related activity" involving "millions of American workers," such as postal employees, truck drivers, utility workers, delivery drivers, and others. But an outpouring of public opposition to this chilling mimicry of Nazi and Communist police-state practices has caused this effort to be shelved - for now.

* Mammoth new federal police force. Security at our nation's airports has been nationalized, with 58,000 new Transportion Security Administration (TSA) officers replacing private and local security/police forces.

* X-ray strip searches. In March 2002, a new whole-body-scan surveillance system was installed at Orlando International Airport in Florida. The new system, which provides a "virtual strip search" that sees through clothing, is a prototype being tested for possible use throughout the country.

* Increased wiretaps. On November 18, 2002, a three-judge panel approved the U.S. Justice Department's request to grant much wider use of wiretapping and other surveillance technologies in the war against terrorism.

* Ubiquitous cameras. In the wake of 9-11, installing public surveillance cameras has skyrocketed throughout America. Washington, D.C., which appears to be the model, has installed hundreds of new cameras, not just around federal buildings and monuments, but throughout the city, to surveil streets, parks, schools, malls, and other public areas.

In addition, 9-11 has been used to give renewed impetus for a national ID card, increased national monitoring of all firearms and ammunition sales, human micro-chip implants, and a host of other dangerous proposals. Vast new police-state powers are being proposed and supported by Republicans who would not dream of supporting the same programs if the White House were occupied by Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, or Dick Gephardt. Since constitutional arguments have failed thus far to reach many of these folks and halt their rush toward dictatorship, we must resort to the practical appeal to survival: They must be reminded that sooner or later a Democrat administration will retake the Oval Office and will then will be able to use and abuse whatever offices, powers, and programs the current Republican administration has set in place.

Fortunately, the sheer in-your-face audacity of the TIA total surveillance program has alarmed a broad cross-section of America, spanning the political spectrum. The 9-11 terrorist attacks have been used repeatedly to stampede popular support for many questionable programs and harmful legislation. Hopefully, programs like TIA will awaken sufficient numbers of Americans to realize that some "cures" can be worse than the disease.

* See "Foundations of the Garrison State" in the October 7, 2002 issue of TNA. Click on the link at www.thenewamerican.com/focus/police_state/

RELATED ARTICLE: BodySearch: Contraband detection system

Security specialists have developed a low-power X-ray body scanner that can detect metal objects and such organic materials as drugs. The scanner may be useful in screening suspicious persons at airports.

HOW IT WORKS:

X-rays pass through clothing; image appears on TV monitor

* Single scan: 8 seconds

* Full scan: Front, back, sides takes less than one minute

* Radiation level: 7,000 scans are equal to one medical X-ray

WHAT IT SHOWS:

Contraband items will absorb high amounts of X-rays, become visible on monitor

Virtual strip search: In March 2002, the Orlando International Airport in Florida became the first airport to install full-body-scan X-ray machines. The technology sees through clothing to reveal everything, including private anatomy. Besides the obvious humiliation of such invasive technology and the concerns expressed by privacy advocates that the images may end up on the Internet or in other public media, there is the more pressing concern over the escalating totalitarian potential as these "security tools" proliferate.

SOURCE: American Science and Engineering, Inc.; research by JUTTA SCHEIBE and BRENNA SINK