Reaction Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
Ranking Member And Incoming Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,
To Report That The Government Is Assigning Terror Scores To Travelers
Friday, December 1, 2006

“The recent revelation that, since 9/11, the U.S. government has been assigning terror scores to millions of law-abiding Americans who travel across our borders, without their knowledge, highlights the danger of government use of technology to conduct widespread surveillance of our daily lives without proper safeguards for privacy.  It is simply incredible that the Bush Administration is willing to share this sensitive information with foreign governments and even private employers, while refusing to allow U.S. citizens to see or challenge their own terror scores.

“When done poorly or without proper safeguards and oversight, data banks do not make us safer, they just further erode Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.  This is an Administration that goes to unprecedented lengths to hide its own activities from the public, while at the same time collecting and compiling unprecedented amounts of information about every citizen.

“New technologies make data banks more powerful and more useful than they have ever been before.  They have a place in our security regimen.  But powerful tools like this are easy to abuse and are prone to mistakes.  A mistake can cost Americans their jobs and wreak havoc in their lives.  Mistakes on government watch lists have become legendary in recent years.  We need checks and balances to keep government data bases from being misused against the American people. 

“Data banks like this are overdue for oversight, and that is going to change in the new Congress.”

# # # # #