The New York Times notes today that a new massive government database has been created that contains “fingerprints, DNA, voices, documents, car rentals and travel, as well as details about arms and explosives transfers” relating to suspected terrorists, and that it is is being shared among all of the nation’s police and military agencies. You might expect the Times to condemn the government for creating a new Big Brother that threatens everyone’s privacy. Instead, the news story in which the database is mentioned uncritically refers to the database as a “measure[] to improve [the nation’s] ability to investigate potential Islamic terrorist plots.” What explains the Times’ apparent lack of concern? Hard to tell, but one reason may be that “the government” at issue is the government of Spain, not the United States.
UPDATE: Sugar, Mr. Poon? gently suggests that this post is rather lame. Yeah, I think I agree — and not just because I watched Fletch last night on TV. If I could rewrite it — hey, wait, I can rewrite it, this being a blog and all — it would probably come out something more like this:
SPAIN’S TERRORISM DATABASE: The New York Times mentions in passing that Spain has created a new and comprehensive terrorist database that contains “fingerprints, DNA, voices, documents, car rentals and travel, as well as details about arms and explosives transfers” relating to suspected terrorists that it is being shared among all of the nation’s police and military agencies. It’s only a mention in passing, but it reminds me of something that generally is missing from the Times’ coverage of domestic war on terrorism issues — a comparative perspective on what other countries are doing in response to similar problems. I’m not sure, but I suspect such a perspective would reveal that steps that in the United States are considered severe and unwarranted invasions of privacy are considered rather routine abroad. That doesn’t mean we should adopt those same approaches, of course — no one wants the anti-terrorism laws of France to be imported here — but I think it would be of interest to put U.S. measures in international perspective.
Better, I hope.
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