REALLY..talk about tin foil..with the National Security Letters going

NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS
Thursday, November 10, 2005

One more thing to fear from the Patriot Act is the use of a national security letter issued unilaterally by a FBI special-agent-in-charge from one of the more than 60 FBI field offices scattered throughout the country.

A national security letter, when presented to the recipient, demands that the institution provide all financial records and communications records for the person or people listed on the letter. Furthermore, the letter recipient is warned never to reveal or to disclose the existence of this letter or the person of interest to anyone, ever. More than 30,000 national security letters have already been issued and it is estimated that more than 100,000 people have been the intended targets of these letters. Both financial and communications records are very broadly defined. For example, financial records, in addition to the obvious banking, credit card and investment records, could also include such financial transactions as payment for any goods or services such as getting one’s car serviced at Jiffy Lube or a purchase at Sears using cash.

Broadly defined, communications records would include such things as the obvious telephone, cellphone, and Internet, but also such things as phone card, pager, fax and Blackberry usage. Together, communications records and financial records constitute the vast preponderance of information about how we live in this day and age.

So, by mapping all this out the government can collect a vast amount of information about a terrorist, or any innocent American citizen. And it doesn’t even have to be an American citizen; it can be anyone, anytime, anyplace. This very broad net has appeal for stopping terrorists, which is important, but it also has unfortunate consequences for the civil liberties of all non-terrorists, which is most of us.
http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/94/2872/2005-11-10.asp?wid=94&nid=2872