Government Fishing Expeditions – The Good and the Bad. (UBS)

[MattSh]

The last eight years, the right wing was cheering on the Bush administration whenever they chose to go on a government authorized fishing expedition. Now that Obama is in charge, the left wing is pushing for their own government authorized fishing expeditions.

First, what is a “fishing expedition”? A fishing expedition is generally defined as an effort by a prosecutor to search through records of innocent and protected behavior to find someone who might be committing a crime, or a search of innocent and protected records on someone suspected of committing a crime, because they authorities can’t figure out how the suspected crime was committed using relevant records.

Here is a guide to bad fishing expeditions and good fishing expeditions.

The BAD.

FBI wants Amazon to turn over book purchasing information:

http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3539

Justice Department wants Google to turn over information of millions of internet searches:

http://people.w3.org/~djweitzner/blog/?p=46

FBI investigates a journalist writing a book:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801854.html

Traveler’s laptops may be detained at border:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/08/01/laptops.html

Phone companies gave NSA millions of records:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5399264

OK, you get the picture. Fishing expeditions approved by right wingers = BAD.

The GOOD.

IRS wants UBS to release name of 52,000 clients:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ae6O77_fTfv4&refer=home

Sad to say, this list of GOOD fishing expeditions is bound to grow in the next few years. But all of these stories have one thing in common. They are fishing expeditions. The government wants these 52,000 names not because they have evidence that all 52,000 people have broken the law. Hell, they don’t even know who they are! They want it for the same reason they want to search laptops, and have access to millions of internet search records, to have access to millions of private telephone calls, and book purchasing and library check-out information. They want to discourage people from participating in LEGAL and PROTECTED behavior that the authorities would prefer you not do anyway. They want you to give up your rights voluntarily, without them have to pass a law and enforce that law.