“Total Information Awareness” — defeated, or just going underground?
News item: “The Senate voted on Thursday to bar deployment of a Pentagon project to search for terrorists by scanning information in Internet mail and in the commercial databases of health, financial and travel companies here and abroad…,” reports the New York Times.
It would be encouraging to think that this proposed quantum leap in government surveillance (discussed by Green Boy in the nascent days of this weblog) is meeting its just end as an idea that’s too appalling even for Washington, D.C., to accept. But some curmudgeons note that this vote, although unanimous, is far from the final word.
As the latter article hints, in the labyrinthine world of Congressional legislation, this unanimous vote could represent a tactical retreat by the GOP — letting Democrats “kill” the project now in the face of open opposition, but already plotting to resurrect it behind closed doors. This page, of course, will keep you updated on further developments.
Stumble it!