One Nation Under Surveillance

It reminds us of George Orwell's classic novel, "1984." The novel, written in 1949, describes a future society, set in 1984, in which a totalitarian government spies on its own citizens using "thought police."A poster described in the novel reminds citizens that "Big Brother is watching you." 

Many people have described the growing power of the U.S. Government in the wake of Sept. 11 as "Orwellian," and some have used the term "Big Brother" to refer to government snooping. The U.S. Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act make it easier for law enforcement agencies to covertly monitor the activities of U.S. citizens with fewer checks and balances to prevent the unjustified invasion of privacy. The FBI is now authorized  to obtain from libraries and bookstores the names of books that you buy or check out. And soon, the Office of Total Information Awareness may be able to cross-reference such information with other purchase information deduced from credit card transaction records. I have no doubt that we are one nation under surveillance. 

— Dan Frazier

"There's a lot of good folks at the federal level and the state level and the local level working hard -- listen, any time -- we understand the stakes now, and any time somebody is thinking about doing something to America, and somehow we're reading their thoughts, or reading their mail, we're moving on them." 

— Big Brother Dubya displaying ardent support for the thought police, South Bend, Indiana, Oct. 31, 2002