Carnivore
(Foodism Magazine 2002)


Globalism is inevitable...liberty is not. It takes a lot of energy to keep that light of freedom lit. Perhaps it is best to try and think of it as a beacon rather than a laser, a guiding light rather than a beam of well-ordered destruction. A laser is something we use to amputate sickly flesh, a beacon is a signal of hope. We can't simply treat others on the basis of profit. We have to deal fairly with others because we are fair by nature. When we allow our leaders to abandon global arms and environmental agreements, let greed turn terror into an assault on our own civil liberties, support an elitist economy, and make inward-looking foreign policies we create a deep and abiding resentment in others that only breeds violence.

Its hard to imagine a post-Watergate government so cavalier with our right to public access as to actually attempt to alter the transcripts coming out of the oval office, but that's precisely what they're up to now. Is this is the same government we are supposed to trust to maintain that delicate balance between "information-gathering in a state of war", and the protection of our fragile civil liberties?

The new anti-terrorism law, known as the USA Patriot Act allows law enforcement authorities sweeping new surveillance powers that are not limited to terrorism but also apply to criminal and intelligence investigations. It allows the government to reach into every space that Americans once imagined was private. For instance, police can now obtain court orders to conduct so called "sneak and peak" searches of homes and offices. This allows them to break in, examine, remove or alter items without immediately, if ever, presenting owners with a detailed warrant.

Legislators who voted for the USA Patriot Act pointed out that the most controversial surveillance sections of their bill would expire in 2005. They assured us that these were only temporary wartime measures and that "sunset provisions" for automatic expiration in a few years were included. But the fact is these provisions do not apply to the sharing of grand jury information, giving the CIA new and permanent benefits of grand jury powers.

The "sunset provisions" also do not apply to ongoing cases and intelligence investigations, which, since they often run for years, would continue to operate even if provisions were not extended past 2005. Also exempted are any future investigations of crimes that took place before this date.

Then there's new internet surveillance via "pen register" devices, which capture phone numbers dialed on outgoing telephone calls, and ?trap and trace? devices, which capture the numbers of incoming calls. Also exempt from the "sunset provisions", these devices, originally used to provide investigators with telephone numbers dialed by suspects, can now be used to monitor email addressing information and Web pages visited?in some cases without judicial oversight. Investigations approved by the secretive FISA intelligence court would also not require notification.

The new law also permits any U.S. attorney or state attorney general to order the installation of the FBI's "Carnivore" internet surveillance system, which has the capacity to capture the contents of email and even remotely monitor keystrokes.

While Carnivore requires that investigators set up an audit trail which includes what information was gathered, by whom and when, there is no court mandate to review the information and make sure that it complies with the terms of certification. In other words?there is no real oversight!

Even Internet Service Providers, telephone companies, universities and network administrators are authorized under the new law to conduct surveillance of "computer trespassers", without a court order, if the FBI claims that the records are relevant to a terrorism investigation. What?s worse, they are forbidden to disclose that the FBI is conducting an investigation, have immunity to provide sensitive data, and are not bound by any statutory rights to suppress the information.

Proponents of the act make grave and stentorian assertions that things are bad.

"How bad?" we ask.

"Bad." they reply.

Apparently things are bad enough to "condense" our civil liberties but not so bad as to fully federalize air-safety. Bad enough to tolerate racial profiling but not so bad as to replace strong-arm foreign-policy tactics with long-term engagement and diplomacy. Bad enough to drill in our treasured wildlands but not bad enough to raise the miles-per-gallon gas standards by even a few miles per gallon on just the newer models. But could the situation ever be bad enough to warrant the response by the arch-right to the very presence of dissent itself?

As insensitive and incendiary as our global posture has become under the current political leadership, the problem is more about principles than politics. Are we willing to blindly support bloody acts of war abroad without even holding aloft the torch of our hard-won civil liberties at home?

Now is the time to prevail upon our leaders to initiate policies which more accurately reflect our most basic ethical values . Now is the moment to support the few voices left who refuse to swallow the regurgitated norms, fears, and pieties, of this carnivorous "shadow" government.