ng the names of 120,000 individuals who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists.

Impressed by the scoring technology, the Justice Department followed up by investigating numerous people on the list, and ultimately appointed Seisent the sole contractor on the $12-million MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) project.

Because the MATRIX system includes extensive information on people with no criminal record as well as shadier characters, it has sparked criticism from many privacy groups and all but five states have now withdrawn from the program.

Matrix claims to have removed the terrorism scoring system from its final product, but was unable to provide any documentation of that when queried by AP. According to documents obtained from Utah, which has since pulled out of the program, Seisent officials said the scoring system was developed by reverse engineering an unnamed "Terrorist Handbook" that describes how terrorists "penetrate and live in our society." The scoring algorithm factored in such data as age, gender, ethnicity, credit history, "investigational data," information about pilot and driver licenses, and connections to "dirty" addresses used by other suspects. (AP 20 May 2004)

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GOVERNMENT SPYING ON CITIZENS RESURFACES UNDER ANOTHER NAME

From: World Affairs Brief, http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com

The AP has reported that "Congress eliminated a Pentagon office that had been developing this terrorist-tracking technology because of fears it might ensnare innocent Americans [its real purpose ed.]. Still, some projects from retired Adm. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness effort were transferred to U.S. intelligence offices, congressional, federal and research officials told The Associated Press. In addition, Congress left undisturbed a separate but similar $64 million research program run by a little-known office called the Advanced Research and Development Activity, or ARDA, that has used some of the same researchers as Poindexter's program. 'The whole congressional action looks like a shell game,' said Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks work by U.S. intelligence agencies. 'There may be enough of a difference for them to claim TIA was terminated while for all practical purposes the identical work is continuing.'" [End of AP quote.]

Remembering how the notorious Bank surveillance program "Know Your Customer" was slipped back into law under the Patriot Act, it seems the government is still bent on subverting the public's privacy by hook or by crook. True liberty loving, conservative administrations don't do these kinds of things. How many times does this have to happen for conservatives to finally wake up and see that Bush is not what he pretends to be?

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"Any truth is better than make-believe ... rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."

--Henry David Thoreau

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people."

- Lying Monkey Boy Bush, chimp off the old block

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