The Scoop: This column has been monitored

The average U.S. citizen doesn’t know the intricate details of the Patriot Act. At the risk of sounding average, I don’t either.

But the basic premise I’ve been able to grasp is the Patriot Act gives our government great leeway to investigate our lives without our knowledge. The Patriot Act gives agents in powerful government organizations the permission to spy on perfectly innocent Americans under the guise such actions are protecting the country from terrorists.

The extent of this spying was taken one step further last week when the White House revealed it has been examining e-mails and listening to phone calls of Americans without their knowledge ? for the past four years.

In a country founded on freedom, this sort of government spying is startling. And I’m not the only one who is alarmed.

Since the phone tapping was revealed, lawmakers from both parties have been fuming and there’s now talk of a congressional investigation. It seems legislators value freedom too. The White House, however, showed no signs of retreating when its hand was caught in the cookie jar, or in this case the privacy of Americans.

As he’s been known to do, Vice President Dick Cheney fired a terse rebuttal. And I should note this time the vice president’s comments were appropriate for the whole family.

“It’s not an accident we haven’t been hit in four years,” said Cheney referring to a terrorist strike on U.S. soil. “I believe in a strong, robust executive authority, and I think the world we live in demands it.”

“If there’s a backlash pending,” Cheney said in obvious reference to a congressional investigation, “I think the backlash is going to be against those who are suggesting somehow that we shouldn’t take these steps to defend the country. Either we’re serious about fighting the war on terror or we’re not.”

These are all fine points and I applaud the vice president and President Bush for their commitment to the war on terror. I want to feel safe in this country, to feel free from a terrorist strike, and the White House is making a bold attempt to secure not only my safety, but the safety of all Americans.

What has me more concerned, however, is my freedom and the government’s ability to meddle in it. Just as I value safety, I expect privacy ? especially in my own home. I don’t like the thought of the government listening to my phone conversations and then cowering behind the claim it’s being done as a matter of national security.

In a speech Monday morning, Bush indicated the spying was only taking place against “obvious terrorist suspects.” That’s great but as we know once freedom is snatched away, it’s hard to get back.

The natural progression would be to expand such a spying program to include “borderline terrorist suspects,” and then “people who just look guilty,” and then “anybody we feel like.” Actually, since we don’t know whose e-mails and phone conversations are being monitored, the government is already spying on anybody it wants to.

I recently published a story in the Standard about a man who wrongly served 24 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. He was eventually cleared by DNA evidence and released about two weeks ago. The sad story brought to mind the famous quote that said, “I would rather let 1,000 guilty men go free than wrongly punish one innocent man.”

By listening to phone conversations, by intercepting e-mails, and by digging through library records, our government is spying on the lives of innocent Americans convicted of absolutely nothing.

I may not know much about the Patriot Act, but I know enough to tell me that’s not the right direction for our country to be headed.

James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].