Are we living in a surveillance state?

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the extent of National security Agency domestic surveillance here:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120511973377523845.html

Is the NSA reading your email? CNET’s Chris Soghohian explores the possibility here:

http://www.cnet.com/surveillance-state/8301-13739_1-9886766-46.html?tag=more

Here is a Washington Post story about the problems some people are having when their names turn up on terrorist watch lists:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/18/AR2008031802971_pf.html

More discussion of the issue from political scientist Henry Farrell here (long and legal)

http://crookedtimber.org/2008/03/19/watchlists-human-rights-and-legal-politics/

Scotland Yard wants a national DNA database (Britain already has a fairly extensive one):

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/british-police.html

Should we have a national DNA database? Bioethics professor Hilary Bok says no:

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2007/02/what_part_of_in.html

Last year at this time people were upset by this Washington Post story about the FBI’s use of “National Security Letters” to obtain electronic information:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/08/AR2007030802356.html

Because this is the Information Age, you can read the full Justice Department Inspector General’s report here:

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0703b/final.pdf

Liberal Glenn Greenwald worries here:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/07/7543/

Conservative James Bovard worries here:

http://www.amconmag.com/05_19_03/cover.html

Older news relevant to our topic:

FBI adopts ‘vacuum cleaner’ approach to data collection:

http://news.com.com/FBI+turns+to+broad+new+wiretap+method/2100-7348_3-6154457.html

Computer assigns ‘terror ratings’ to travelers:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2694765