Welcome to the United States of Surveillance. Where a special secret court grants government prosecutors warrants to snoop, read paper and electronic mail, or listen in on telephone conversations of anyone suspected of involvement with terrorists.
The United States of Surveillance, where “Project Lookout” isn’t the fictional creation of a paranoid mind, but the FBI’s ever-changing most wanted list, distributed to corporations and dedicated to “information sharing” about private citizens.
Then there’s the Defense Department’s Office of Total Information Awareness, headed by John Poindexter of Iran-Contra scandal fame. He was convicted of lying to Congress. Now, he’s charged with ferreting out the truth about potentially unpatriotic Americans. National insecurity about the prerogatives of national security.
Guests:
Victoria Toensing, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Justice Department’s Terrorism Unit (1984 – 1988) and founding partner, diGenova and Toensing
Amitai Etzioni, author, “The Limits of Privacy,” and First University Professor, George Washington University
Stephen Schulhofer, Robert B. McKay Professor of Law, New York University