Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 14:11:36 -0400
Message-Id: <200207251811.OAA04767@telekinesis.mit.edu>
From: belmonte@MIT.EDU (Matthew Belmonte)
To: senator@kennedy.senate.gov (Ted Kennedy)
Subject: oppose S.2452

I hope that you'll oppose S.2452, the Homeland Security Act.  In creating yet
another cabinet department, this bill would needlessly expand the federal
bureaucracy and reify the country's recent, impulsive moves towards expanded
police powers and gutted civil liberties.

President Bush's proposal for the Homeland Security Act would create an
insidious domestic spying program called TIPS, in which meter readers, letter
carriers, and other people with regular access to private homes would be
encouraged to report 'suspicious' activities.  This proposal invites abuse from
those with a grudge or a desire for glory.  It conjures images of the old block
secretaries of communist Eastern Europe, who used to snoop on their neighbours
similarly.  It effectively permits suspicionless, warrantless searches - the
very antithesis of the spirit of the Fourth Amendment.

The Act would also create an unduly broad exemption to the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA).  The FOIA exemption would not be limited to requests
for information whose misuse could harm critical infrastructure.  It would
preempt state laws on open government, and it would would criminalise leaks of
information that pertains to critical infrastructure.

The Act would hamper the technology industry by transferring the Computer
Security Division from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to
the new Department of Homeland Security - a move to which industry officials
have objected.

Again, I hope that you'll vote against S.2452, the Homeland Security Act.  I
look forward to reading your views on this important matter.

Matthew Belmonte
[address]