The new Homeland Security Act is designed to protect us by ferreting out threats to our personal and national safety. President Bush sold the plan because safety is a top priority for most of us.

But at what price?

Under this new legislation, government will be able to monitor our e-mail, track our phone habits and keep a log of what Web sites we visit. In partnership with the Homeland Security Act will be the Pentagon Project, the compilation of credit card purchases that might help identify terrorists.

The government will be able to track our personal choices, punch that information into a database and keep constant tabs on us. If we buy a one-way plane ticket, purchase a weapon, visit a questionable Web site or send what government considers to be suspicious e-mails, we will come under scrutiny.

Big Brother? Or smart security?

Explaining the purpose of the government’s new vigorous tracking systems, Defense Undersecretary Edward Aldridge, said the Total Information Awareness program is designed to identify “connections between transactions — such as passports, visas, work permits, driver’s licenses, credit cards, airline tickets, rental cars, gun purchases, chemical purchases — and events such as arrests or suspicious activities.”

While citizens can agree we want potential terrorists identified and tracked, most do not want to be scooped up in the sweep for information.

If government begins tracking purchases, won’t those who want to stay under the radar avoid plastic and use cash? Of course.

It will be ordinary people, mostly law-abiding people, whose personal habits will be chronicled and monitored.

Homeland Security and the Total Information Awareness programs have an Orwellian “1984” feel, a scenario that seems less fictional now than when published in 1949.

One book reviewer’s observation of “1984” is worth repeating. The novel, with its disturbing portrayal of Thought Police and constant electronic monitoring in public and private, reminds “us of what has gone wrong, what can go wrong, and what will go wrong when government becomes all-powerful.” Privacy is lost.

We are, for the sake of the war against terrorism and protection of personal safety, giving up freedoms that we have long fought to protect. For the most part, the release of these freedoms has been docile because we believe so strongly in protecting our borders.

We have passively permitted this power shift, giving government greater access to our personal information while, at the same time and under the same legislation, government has written greater protections for itself from inquiry by the people.

The entire purpose of these new monitoring powers is to catch terrorists. If they don’t quickly demonstrate results, we must force the restoration of personal privacy.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com