August - September 2002

Secrecy vs. Privacy

Privatizing Public Affairs, Publicizing Private Lives

If the square haircut on the new guy in your book-of-the-month club seems rather odd, it could be that he's simply out of fashion. If your telephone receiver starts making unusual clicking sounds, it could be bad service. Or it could be that the eyes and ears of the Justice Department have penetrated your privacy.

Critics across the political spectrum contend that the Bush administration is pursuing double-standard policies eerily reminiscent of undemocratic regimes: seeking ever greater access to the public's private lives while engaging in ever greater secrecy in its conduct of public affairs.

September 11 and the fight against terror, some say, are being improperly invoked to justify both the cloaking of Uncle Sam's own secret policies and plans and accelerated invasions of personal privacy.

• The USA PATRIOT Act allows a person's home to be searched or bugged without them ever being told.
  
  
• The FBI can now spy on you via the Internet and public meetings with no inkling of criminal activity.
  
  
• Vice President Cheney is being sued over his refusal to release information on his energy task force.
  
  
• The Dept. of Homeland Security will likely be broadly exempted from the Freedom of Information Act.
  
  
• Operation TIPS - a proposal to recruit a citizen spy corps - was cut from Homeland Security legislation.

Many claim that we are in a time of war, so accommodations must be made. Yet, say others, nothing about our right to privacy or right to know impedes the tracking or prosecution of terrorists.

What do we have the right to know about the activities of our own government? How much should Uncle Sam know about our private affairs - and to what end? Do high levels of secrecy enhance or endanger security? Is our information society fast becoming an informer society?

In August - September 2002, MMP conducted a major public education campaign on these issues. In all, we scheduled 210 radio, television, print, and internet interviews in 31 states. Of these, 8 were regionally, nationally or globally syndicated. 50 of the radio interviews occurred on commercial radio stations. Some 40 authorities were interviewed.

Guest Speakers by Topic:

Gary Bass, Executive Director, OMB Watch

Charles Davis, Executive Director, The Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Associate Professor of Journalism, University of Missouri

William Ferroggiaro, Director, Freedom of Information Project, National Security Archive

David Harris, Professor of Law and Values, University of Toledo, Author, Profiles in Injustice: Why Racial Profiling Cannot Work (2002)

Sean Moulton, Senior Policy Analyst, OMB Watch

Thomas Powers, Senior Editor, Steerforth Press, Contributing Editor, The Atlantic

Athan Theoharis, Professor of History, Marquette University, Author, Chasing Spies: How the FBI Failed in Counterintellignece But Promoted the Politics of McCarthyism in the Cold War Years (2002)

Jeff Chester, Executive Director, Center for Digital Democracy

James Dempsey, Deputy Director, Center for Technology and Democracy, Co-Author, Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security (rev. 2002)

Jason Erb, Council on American-Islamic Relations

Stephenie Foster, Director of Public Policy, People for the American Way

Kit Gage, President, National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, Director, National Committee Against Repressive Legislation

Chris Hoofnagle, Legislative Counsel, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Webmaster, Privacy.org

Bill Kovach, Journalist and Chairman, Committee for Concerned Journalists, Co-author, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect (2001)

Robert Levy, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

Patrice McDermott, Associate Director - Office of Government Relations, American Library Association

Rachel Ward, Research and Media Coordinator, Amnesty International USA

Ashley Barr, Senior Program Associate for Human Rights, The Carter Center

Craig Eisendrath, Senior Fellow, Center for International Policy

Ivan Eland, Director of Center on Peace and Liberty, Independent Institute

Natalie Goldring, Executive Director - Program on Global Security and Disarmament - Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland

Hussein Ibish, Communications Director, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Kate Martin, Director, Center for National Security Studies

Cecilia O'Leary, Associate Professor of History, California State University at Monterey Bay, Author, To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism (rev. 2002)

Tony Platt, Professor of Sociology, California State University at Sacramento, Editor, Social Justice (a journal)

Jamin Raskin, Professor of Constitutional Law and Criminal Law - Washington College of Law, American University, Co-Director, Program on Law and Government

Bama Athreya, Deputy Director, International Labor Rights Fund

Lynne Bradley, Director - Office of Government Relations, American Library Association

Mitch Freedman, President, American Library Association

Ken Hurwitz, Staff Attorney - International Justice Program, Human Rights First

Robert Jensen, Professor - School of Journalism, University of Texas, Austin, Author, Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (February, 2004)

Rachel King, Legislative Counsel, National Branch, American Civil Liberties Union

Elisa Massimino, Director, Washington Office, Human Rights First

Michael Posner, Executive Director, Human Rights First

Diann Rust-Tierney, Director - Capital Punishment Project, American Civil Liberties Union

Jill Savitt, Director of Communications, Human Rights First

Emily Sheketoff, Executive Director - Washington Office, American Library Association, Associate Executive Director, American Library Association

Rebecca Thornton, Equal Justice Works Fellow, U.S. Law and Security, Human Rights First

Mark Trahant, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer , Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education