In a Burning Building, Searching for Dissent

The FBI faced criticism last month for its "falafel squad" -- a team that conducted data mining of supermarket sales records to root out terror cells based on spikes in the sales of Middle Eastern food. Surely, this operation must have been conducted by rogue agents not following the lead of the Bush administration. As all senior Bush administration officials know, this kind of surveillance can't be left to the FBI to handle. Instead, the job of identifying those who are different and not to be trusted must become the responsibility of agencies that terrorists would never suspect, including the fire department.

As was reported recently, some firefighters are now being told to add to their duties the constant search for signs of "hate or discontent with the United States." To the Bush administration, this initiative is an attempt to evade pesky restrictions imposed on law enforcement by quaint documents such as the Constitution, with its requirement for search warrants, which firefighters do not need to enter a burning building or to perform inspections.

With 70 percent of Americans surveyed reporting that they believe America is on the wrong track, the Bush administration can find plenty of suspects who show signs of discontent. To a government organized under strict father principles, in which the leader "is the unquestionable moral authority to be obeyed," the ultimate threat comes from an active and organized citizenry. To defeat this threat, such an authority can simultaneously evoke fear of sleeper cells among the public to instill distrust of neighbors and quell dissent through pervasive surveillance. The leader's moral authority is strengthened.

Given these aims, what other innovations might we imagine from current or future administrations intent on bringing the value-added activity of searching for terrorists (and others who are not content with Bush's America) to an array of unexpected occupations?

* DMV staff could be instructed to report on questionable dashboard ornaments ("Flying Spaghetti Monster") and suspicious bumper stickers (i.e., "Question Reality", "Dog Is My Co-Pilot","Honk If You Hate America") in the course of vehicle inspections and driver tests.

* English teachers could inspect their students' writing and alert authorities to any suspicious activities or affiliations of family members.

* Sanitation workers could be given the task of identifying and reporting suspicious and/or un-American materials left in garbage and recycling containers, such as aberrant levels of organic food waste or old copies of Condé Nast Traveler. This measure could serve as an intermediate step until the day when sanitation trucks are equipped to photograph the waste streams of all American households. The resulting images (along with associated names and addresses) could then be posted online, where the work of identifying disloyal Americans can be crowdsourced to concerned citizens and offshore contractors who will compete for bonuses.

* Postal employees could be trained to notify authorities in the event of post office customers who appear agitated while waiting in line or who wear T-shirts with suspicious messages, such as "I Voted for Kodos."

* Paramedics and other emergency medical personnel can be given responsibility for identifying patients who fit a terrorist or un-American profile and tagging them with a subdermal RFID implant to enable authorities to monitor their movement. (In the event that organizations of medical workers object to the practice as a violation of their "code of ethics," this responsibility can be reassigned to hospital orderlies.)

All kidding aside, there is a principle at stake that is dead serious. When a government dismisses attempts to hold it accountable and believes in an inherent, absolute right to circumvent the restrictions that our society has placed on surveillance of law-abiding civilians, there is no limit to the "innovations" that we can expect.

As my colleagues at the Rockridge Institute noted in a recent response to an inquiry about privacy, our democracy depends upon a government that respects the rights of citizens and adheres to limitations on its power. It is up to us to restore such a government and to ensure that our fellow citizens recognize that turning heroes and respected public servants into spies against all Americans has no place in a democracy. We owe this not only to ourselves, but also to future generations from whom an open society is now being stolen. If we shirk this responsibility, we will all find ourselves trapped in a burning building, searching for a clue.

To respond to this challenge, we must do more than simply recite the abuses, for this act in isolation can contribute to the atmosphere of fear and division that an abusive authority seeks. Instead, we must work to build community and find strength in collectively challenging authorities that believe they are above reproach. It is the act of community-building that will enable us to say that we are not afraid, not of the specter of sleeper cells, nor of the cowards who conjure them to work their will, nor of any who would condemn us as unpatriotic for speaking truth to power.