News Release

November 15, 2002

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Cato Scholar Condemns Centralized Database Proposal for Homeland Security
Information collection office would allow government to spy on everyday activities of Americans

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Language in the Homeland Security Act could foster conditions to create a centralized information database that will affect the everyday activities of all Americans, says Cato Institute Senior Defense Analyst, Charles Peņa. The legislation to create a new Department of Homeland Security might allow widening the ability of the federal government to secretly monitor e-mails, bank accounts, credit card transactions and medical records, and place the data into a centralized database under the control of a new Pentagon office called the Information Awareness Office.

Peņa says of the proposal:

"The TIPS (Terrorist Information and Prevention Service) program proposed by the Justice Department that would have made us a nation of snitches was bad enough. This is much worse -- it will make us a nation of suspects. In its zeal to give the illusion of homeland security and trying to catch terrorists, the federal government will instead create a surveillance state to spy on its own citizenry. And in casting a wide net, such action will likely violate the guarantee of the Fourth Amendment for `people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.' Indeed, how many innocent Americans will be wrongfully accused? How many will be incarcerated, perhaps indefinitely, and possibly denied their constitutional rights if declared `enemy combatants'?"

Peņa observed that "the first responsibility of the federal government is to protect its citizens, but not at their expense. In the name of homeland security and defending against terrorism, the ends do not justify the means."