A Closer Look Privacy

ABC News - World News Tonight With Peter Jennings
November 25, 2002
[transcript]

 

PETER JENNINGS, ABC NEWS

(Off Camera) We're going to take "A Closer Look" tonight at privacy and security. We all know there's a debate in the country. Does giving the government greater freedom to keep an eye on people, others would say spy on people, in the name of security undermine the basic American commitment to individual freedom? The Pentagon is currently testing something called the Total Information Awareness Program. The American Civil Liberties Union calls it the most extensive surveillance program in history. And what adds to the controversy is the man who is being named to run it. Here is ABC's Jackie Judd.

JACKIE JUDD, ABC NEWS

(Voice Over) This is what the government would monitor, where Americans travel, what they buy, how much money they withdraw. Electronic records from all of those activities and more dumped directly into the Pentagon.

STEWART BAKER, FORMER GENERAL COUNSEL, NSA

Driver's license, information about where people live. Phone numbers. Conceivably, you could add in information that's obtained by law enforcement.

JACKIE JUDD

(Voice Over) The Pentagon believes that by putting all this into supercomputers, suspicious patterns masked as everyday activities would emerge.

PETE ALDRIDGE, UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

You're looking for trends and transactions that are associated with some potential terrorist act. That's what you're looking for. You're trying to put those pieces together.

JACKIE JUDD

(Voice Over) Supporters of the Total Information Awareness Project say private industry such as credit rating companies already collects a lot of this material, so why not let the government take a look?

STEWART BAKER

We owe more to the victims of September 11th than just to say, oh, yeah, well we did a bad job last time, but it's too dangerous to do a better job next time.

JACKIE JUDD

(Voice Over) Normally, though, authorities would have to get a warrant for electronic surveillance.

JIM DEMPSEY, CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY & TECHNOLOGY

The big deal is that the government is proposing to arrest people on the basis of this. The government's proposing to label people as terrorists, to have an impact upon their lives in a very direct and significant way.

JACKIE JUDD

(Off Camera) Not only is the idea controversial, so is the person who came up with it and is running the pilot project.

JACKIE JUDD (CONTINUED)

(Off Camera) President Reagan's national security adviser John Poindexter was convicted, then cleared on a technicality, of lying to Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal. The test run now under way could take a few years and real information, say officials, is not being used. But the Pentagon is clearly moving to create the largest electronic eye ever to look at any and all Americans. Jackie Judd, ABC News, Washington.


Copyright 2002 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

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