The reason there has been so little uproar over the awesome expansion of surveillance activities in the U.S. since 9/11 is that by its very nature it’s going on in secret. We don’t know how much we are being snooped and scooped, and we certainly have no idea how much information about us — including our Internet, phone, buying, and banking habits — is being passed around myriad agencies at every level of government.
Ever heard of a fusion center? Do you care? Most Americans have had every opportunity to learn about data- mining and how the so-called bureaucratic walls or stovepipes between agencies have been torn down to expedite counter-terror and emergency management in the wake of 9/11. But until it affects individuals directly, until the FBI is at the door, it’s snooze city.
This is partly why the PATRIOT Act has been so successful on Capitol Hill, despite the fact that federal courts across the country have in the last decade ruled several of its measures unconstitutional. There’s significant evidence that the expanded surveillance powers invested in the PATRIOT Act have been abused by the federal government at the expense of innocent Americans (read Notes in the Margin), but the most controversial applications have been reauthorized several times by Congress since the act was first passed by bipartisan majorities in October 2001.
This is one “perfect storm” that has kept the PATRIOT Act and all of its manifestations growing, including the federal intelligence budget, which was $75 billion in 2009, according to The Washington Post, more than double its size before 9/11. The NSA, which has in turn doubled its own budget, is hidden away in the D.C. suburbs in 6.3 million square feet of office space housing some 30,000 employees, “many of them reading, listening to, and analyzing an endless flood of intercepted conversations 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
