Date: Wed, 22  Jan  2003 09:36:51 -0500
From: "The American Civil Liberties Union" <belmonte@MIT.EDU>
To: "The American Civil Liberties Union" <belmonte@mit.edu>
Subject: support S.188, the Data-Mining Moratorium Act

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Message sent to the following recipients:
Senator Kennedy
Senator Kerry
Message text follows:

Matthew Belmonte
[address]


January 22, 2003

[recipient address was inserted here]


 [recipient name was inserted here],

I'm writing to urge you to support and to cosponsor the “Data-Mining 
Moratorium Act” (S. 188). 

This important legislation would impose a moratorium on data-mining under 
Total Information Awareness, a program of the Department of Defense that 
threatens to turn everyone into a suspect without proof of criminal 
wrongdoing.  Further, the bill would halt any similar program of the 
Department of Homeland Security unless Congress authorizes such activity. 

Innocent people should be protected from government snooping.  This new 
system would obliterate protections on individual privacy -- the 
government would simply collect data on everyone.

It has been suggested that searching for terrorists in our midst is like 
looking for a needle in a haystack.  If this is true, then it certainly 
makes no sense to make the haystack even bigger by creating the means to 
investigate hundreds of millions of innocent people rather than focussing 
in on real suspects.

Congress must not allow the Defense Department to develop unilaterally a 
surveillance tool that would invade the privacy of innocent people inside 
the United States.  At a time when Americans are calling for more privacy 
of personal information, this program would provide a back door to 
databases of private information.  At a minimum, Congress must put Total 
Information Awareness on hold and investigate the far-reaching 
consequences of developing vast domestic surveillance systems.

Once again, I urge you to support and cosponsor the “Data-Mining 
Moratorium Act.”

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this crucial matter.

Sincerely


Matthew Belmonte