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| Pete Aldridge, the chief of technology for the
Pentagon |
WASHINGTON,
November 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The U.S. government
is to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen, a measure
dubbed “necessary tool” in the war on terrorism, according to the
Pentagon.
Edward
Aldridge, undersecretary of Acquisitions and Technology, told
reporters that the Pentagon is developing a prototype database to seek
"patterns indicative of terrorist activity," reported Fox
News network Thursday, November 21.
Aldridge
said the database would collect and use software to analyze consumer
purchases in hopes of catching terrorists before it is too late.
"The
bottom line is this is an important research project to determine the
feasibility of using certain transactions and events to discover and
respond to terrorists before they act," he said.
Aldridge
said the database, which he called another "tool" in the war
on terror, would look for telltale signs of suspicious consumer
behavior.
He
cited examples as ‘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.
The
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is home to the Pentagon's
brightest thinkers - the ones who built the Internet. DARPA will be in
charge of trying to make the system work technically.
Rear
Adm. John Poindexter, former National Security Adviser to President
Reagan, is developing the database under the Total Information
Awareness Program. Poindexter was convicted on five counts of
misleading Congress and making false statements during the Iran-Contra
investigation. Those convictions were later overturned, but critics
note that his is a dubious resume for someone entrusted with so
sensitive a task.
Aldridge
said Poindexter will only "develop the tool, he will not be
exercising the tool." He said Poindexter brought the database
idea to the Pentagon and persuaded Aldridge and others to pursue it.
"John
has a real passion for this project," Aldridge said.
TIAF's
office logo is now one eye scanning the globe. The translation of the
Latin motto: knowledge is power. Some say, possibly too much power.
"What this is talking about is making us a nation of suspects and
I am sorry, the United States citizens should not have to live in fear
of their own government and that is exactly what this is going to turn
out to be," said Chuck Pena, senior defense policy analyst at the
Cato Institute.
Pena
and others say the database is an even greater violation of privacy
rights than Attorney General John Ashcroft's nixed proposal to turn
postal workers and delivery men into government tipsters. No matter
what protections Congress requires, Pena fears a database big enough
and nimble enough to track the entire nation's spending habits is ripe
for abuse.
"I
don't think once you put something like this in place, you can ever
create enough checks and balances and oversight," Pena said.
However,
proponents say big business already has access to most of this data,
but doesn't do anything with it to fight terrorism.
"I
find it somewhat counter intuitive that people are not concerned that
telemarketers and insurance companies can acquire this data but feel
tremendous trepidation if a government ventures into this arena. To me
it just smacks of paranoia," said David Rivkin, an attorney
for Baker & Hostetler LLP.
The
database is not yet ready and Aldridge said it will not be available
for several years. Fake consumer data will be used in development of
the database, he said.
When
it's ready, Aldridge said individual privacy rights will be protected.
But he could not explain how the data would be accessed. In some
cases, specific warrants would give law enforcement agencies access,
he said. But in other cases the database might flag suspicious
activity without a specific request or warrant, and that suspicious
activity could well be relayed to law enforcement or intelligence
agencies.
"I
don't know what the scope of this is going to be," Aldridge said.
"We are in a war on terrorism. We are trying to find out if this
technology can work."
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