Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 15:03:26 -0500 From: "The American Civil Liberties Union" Content-type: text/plain To: president@whitehouse.gov (George Bush) Subject: terminate the Total Information Awareness program Thank you for using The American Civil Liberties Union Mail System Message sent to the following recipients: President Bush Message text follows: Matthew Belmonte [address] November 18, 2002 [recipient address was inserted here] [recipient name was inserted here], Dear Mr. President, I am writing to ask that you renounce and take all action necessary to terminate the new Defense Department `Total Information Awareness'; program that would provide government officials with the ability to snoop into all aspects of our private lives without a search warrant or proof of criminal wrongdoing. Recent media reports have said that the Pentagon's new Office of Information Awareness is building a system called `Total Information Awareness.' This computer system would effectively provide government officials with immediate access to much of our personal information: communications (phone calls, email and web searches), financial records, purchases, prescriptions, school records, medical records and travel history. Under this program, our entire lives would be catalogued and available to government officials. It is shameful, in a country that still likes to think of itself as a free nation, that government officials believe that they should treat all people as though they're suspects and therefore fair game for government snooping and spying. The principles enunciated in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights aim to protect individuals' privacy rights, and I do not believe that bureaucrats in Washington should have the details of my life available on their computers to be pawed through at their whim. The United States' current legal system provides the ability to investigate individuals who are specifically suspected of wrongdoing. Rather than seeking to investigate some 270 million people indiscriminately, law enforcement officials should instead be focussing on the small number of real suspects. I hope that you will take immediate action to terminate the `Total Information Awareness' Program, and I look forward to receiving your response. Sincerely, Matthew Belmonte