AP: Congress Let Privacy Protections Die

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=703&e=8&u=/ap/20040314/ap_on_go_co/terror_privacy

WASHINGTON - When Congress curtailed Pentagon (news - web sites) research it feared would ensnare innocent Americans in the terrorism fight, it also allowed the Bush administration to eliminate two projects to protect citizens' privacy from futuristic tools. snip

As a result, the government is quietly pressing ahead with research into high-powered computer data-mining technology without the two most advanced privacy protections developed for those terror-fighting tools. snip


The project was the brainchild of retired Adm. John Poindexter, who was driven from the Reagan administration in 1986 over the Iran-Contra scandal. Some 15 years later, he was summoned back by the Bush administration to develop data-mining tools for the fight against terrorism.


Poindexter's new software tools, far more powerful than existing commercial products, would have allowed government agents to quickly scan the private commercial transactions and personal health records of millions of Americans and foreigners for telltale signs of terrorist activity.

more

[aquart]

1. People need to bathe if Poindexter simply walks down their block.

He's that dirty.

[Karenina]

2. I find it incredible that so few respond.

DID ANYONE SEE THIS??? :kick:

[Just Me]

3. Anything in which Pindexter is involved has a despotic fragrance.

I hope that once this administration is voted out that the likes of these radicals NEVER get their claws into positions of power EVER again. They are so, so dangerous.

[struggle4progress]

4. Kick

:kick:

[grasswire]

5. this makes me crazy

I just want to scream at the wind. How could even Republicans allow this to happen?

[tlcandie]

6. Money lining someone's wallet?

:shrug:

Everything is just so out of control! How will we ever rid ourselves of this darkness and chaos that started even before * ? This admin has just made it to where it is in your face and magnified it a 1000 fold!

BTW...snipped this from that article...

<snip>
An early version of Bio-ALIRT was used to help protect President Bush (news - web sites)'s 2001 inauguration...
<snip>

Is this normal? If not what would cause them to feel the need to use this even before 9-11?