February 15, 2003	Saturday	Zul Hijjah 13, 1423

WASHINGTON, Feb 14: Congress imposed tough curbs on a Pentagon plan for a vast electronic database to track possible terrorist movements in the United States after fierce opposition by civil libertarians.

The curbs were contained in language inserted in a mammoth 397.4 billion dollar omnibus spending bill passed on Thursday to fund much of the US federal government through the end of the current fiscal year.

The bill was sent to President George Bush for his signature.

The amendment blocks funding for the so-called “Total Information Awareness” programme unless a detailed report on the programme is presented to Congress and then approved for action.

Critics had assailed the programme, the brainchild of retired rear admiral John Poindexter, as an Orwellian assault on privacy with vast potential for abuse.

The amendment would prevent intelligence gathering on US citizens but does allow “lawful foreign intelligence investigations of non-US citizens in the US”, according to Senator Ron Wyden, the main sponsor of the amendment.

“All across this country, Americans have said that while a vigorous response to terror is necessary, a system designed to spy on Americans in America is not,” said Wyden.

“I won’t take a back seat to anyone on the vigorous pursuit of known and suspected terrorists. But neither will I stand by to let the government shine an indiscriminate light into the private lives and dealings of law-abiding citizens. That crosses the line.”

Pentagon officials had defended the project as a way to use technology to sift through the massive amounts of data already available in an effort to track suspicious activity that could be linked to terrorism. It would use “data mining” techniques that are currently being used for marketing purposes.

As envisioned, the programme would collect vast amounts of electronic data from commercial transactions that would supplement conventional US intelligence collection.

Some critics feared that everything from credit card transactions and Internet purchases to travel records and e-mails would become part of a government database.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations that had opposed the plan expressed relief over the congressional decision.

“Inclusion of this measure is a major win for privacy rights in the United States and a significant first step in the limitation of Total Information Awareness,” said Katie Corrigan, an ACLU legislative counsel.

“Congress, however, must take further concrete steps to ensure safety and freedom for all Americans.”

“The potential for privacy invasion is too great with an unrestricted Total Information Awareness programme. We applaud the members of the conference committee for recognizing this and keeping the essence of Senator Wyden’s amendment intact,” said People For the American Way president Ralph Neas said.

“The common-sense language in the Wyden Amendment will help ensure that Americans’ freedoms are protected.”

The Center for Democracy and Technology called the amendment’s passage “a significant victory for civil liberties,” but said it is “by no means the end of data mining. Rather, it creates an opportunity to develop sound guidelines for thevarious uses of government and private sector databasesthat will become an increasing part of efforts by various agencies to prevent terrorism.”—AFP