Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

February 13, 2008

In 1999, Russia's secret police, successors to the notorious KGB, created a program to carry out the real-time surveillance of electronic communications without a warrant.

Russian privacy activist Anatoly Levenchuk explains that agreements were made between the KGB and telecommunications companies permitting the installation of monitoring devices; this way, Levenchuk noted, ?the [KGB] can insist that it is receiving `voluntary' cooperation ... and ... merely assisting [companies] in their efforts at `self-regulation.'?

When the Russian press revealed the surveillance program, the KGB defended it as a means of protecting the country from terrorists and international gangsters.

The Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping initiative is a near-duplicate of the KGB program. Like its Russian counterpart, the Bush surveillance program depends on cooperation of telecom companies to get around existing laws and constitutional safeguards.

The administration wants Congress to grant immunity to the cooperating telecom firms, and to make the eavesdropping system permanent. The KGB would certainly approve.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.