Editorial: Mining for information

Monday, July 24, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

Federal intelligence agencies have invested untold millions on computer programs that sift through people's personal records, both in America and abroad, searching for terrorism connections.

According to a story last week by USA Today, at least five of these data-mining computer programs were created for Total Information Awareness, a Pentagon program that Congress disbanded nearly three years ago because of personal privacy concerns. Yet, despite Congress' concerns, these data-mining programs are still being used by other intelligence agencies to cull through such information as financial transactions and communications and travel records.

Federal reports and contracts do not specifically disclose how much the CIA and Pentagon have spent in acquiring, upgrading and developing these programs, USA Today reports, because such information is classified. So Americans have no idea what information is being collected on them and they also don't know how much it is costing them.

President Bush and other administration officials have said that the searches adhere to the law and don't invade the privacy of Americans, USA Today reports, adding that in May Bush assured that the government was "not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans." White House officials have declined to elaborate, so there is no telling how they or the president define "innocent."

Given the president's track record on domestic surveillance - his current program has drawn widespread criticism and scrutiny by Congress and the public - we don't have a lot of reason to have confidence in Bush's claim that these data-mining operations aren't digging unnecessarily through people's personal lives in some manner.