Homeland Security

Yet another federal data-mining program, the "Automated Targeting System," was recently revealed through publication in the Federal Register. Seems Fatherland Security is compiling a vast array of personal information on each of us who travel, by any means, intends to retain that information in their system for 40 years, and that we are neither allowed to review nor dispute whatever information they may have compiled. After a bit of public outcry during the original comment period, DHS has now extended the period for public comment through December 29, 2006. In the majority opinion on Kent v. Dulles, 357 U.S. 116 in 1958, Justice William Douglas commented:

The right to travel is a part of the "liberty" of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. So much is conceded by the Solicitor General. In Anglo-Saxon law, that right was emerging at least as early as the Magna Carta. Chafee, Three Human Rights in the Constitution of 1787 (1956), 171-181, 187 et seq., shows how deeply engrained in our history this freedom of movement is. Freedom of movement across frontiers in either direction, and inside frontiers as well, was a part of our heritage.

We have no illusion that even overwhelming response to federal requests for "public comment" will, by itself, shut down this program (though it might force it underground), just as we don't believe letters to the editor and calling our Congresspersons will, alone, reverse the course of fascism. However, we have always encouraged readers to utilize every opportunity to resist, to make our voices heard, to say "NO!" to the ever-increasing destruction of our civil liberties from every direction. This is one of those opportunities, and we hope thousands of you will comment during the next two weeks. Please forward this piece to your friends and email lists and thus multiply our effect. Related articles and the comment instructions have been added at the end of this brief article, so you can do thorough research in compiling your comment, letters and phone calls. Please cc your representatives and newspaper editors on your letters--they need to be hearing, loud and clear, that we are absolutely opposed to this (and all) encroachment on our constitutional right to travel freely. They must know that we are NOT among "those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety," as Benjamin Franklin put it so well!