There are spies among us. I am not talking about agents of foreign governments, but people hired by our own government to spy on us. In the aftermath of the September 11^th attacks, the Bush administration sought (and the Congress eagerly approved) numerous substantial increases in the authority of the federal government to engage in domestic spying. The infamous Patriot Act is the best known collection of those increases, but it is not the only law passed since September 11, 2001 which has had that effect. Those laws, combined with substantial increases in funding for the agencies which carry out domestic spying, have greatly increased the risk for each of us that we (and the organizations we belong to) are being spied upon by our government.

     Domestic spying is nothing new. In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the Church Committee, chaired by Senator Frank Church, investigated the problem of domestic spying in the United States. It’s 1976 report documented widespread abuses by the FBI and other agencies which were engaged in domestic spying. Over 1.5 million Americans had been targeted by the CIA, even though its charter prevented it from engaging in domestic spying. Among the abuses documented were anonymous attempts to break up marriages, to get people fired from their jobs, and to instigate rivalries between different target groups. The report documented violations of law, the political abuse of intelligence information, and the improper dissemination of intelligence information. J. Edgar Hoover had a long history of using the FBI to spy on citizens with no criminal record, and using the information to further his own political agenda. Martin Luther King Jr. was the victim of FBI attempts to break up his marriage and to induce him to commit suicide. Kate Martin, the Director of the Washington D.C. based Center for National Security Studies, reports that there is virtually no domestic spying agency which is not tainted with scandal, political spying and dirty tricks.

     This should not be a surprise, because domestic spying is inherently a secret activity, and is not subject to the kinds of checks and balances which are built into most other types of governmental activities. In the U.S., domestic spying operations are often classified, and only a few select members of congress are privy to the details, assuming they even bother to ask. Congress cannot effectively carry out its oversight function when it does not even know what is going on. The courts are also very deferential and reluctant to intervene when national security interests are invoked by the government. All too often, there are no effective mechanisms in place to identify and stop the abuses which take place in these programs.

     With the expanded scope of domestic spying which has been authorized since the September 11^th attacks, and the expanded funding which has been appropriated for domestic spying, there is every reason to believe that the number of spies among us has increased and is still on the rise. With the spies, we can also expect the abuses to increase. We can’t always know who the spies are, but there are steps we can take to try to protect ourselves.

     First, we can lobby our congressional delegation to support effective oversight of and limits on the scope of domestic spying. Both Don Young and Lisa Murkowski have given lip service in the past to rolling back some of the more extreme provisions of the Patriot Act. Keep the pressure on them to follow through on that, and ask them to also support effective Congressional oversight of domestic spying programs. At the same time, ask them to oppose the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, also known as Patriot Act 2, if and when it comes before them for a vote.

     Second, we can keep track of cases of domestic spying whenever they come to light, and report them to the national organizations which try to protect us from domestic spying. The National Lawyers Guild, The Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union are three of the leading organizations which are involved in this fight. If any cases of domestic spying come to your attention, please make sure that these organizations know about it.

     Third, we can assume that our phones are tapped, and that the government is monitoring every conversation we have, every e-mail we send, and every meeting we attend. Do not even joke about committing or wanting to commit illegal acts. You may think that this suggestion is overly paranoid, but there are people sitting in prison today who were convicted based upon a thoughtless casual remark or joke that came back to haunt them. The greater the number of spies that are out there, the greater the likelihood that the same fate can befall you.

      On the other hand, do not feel that we need to stop engaging in legal political activities such as attending demonstrations, lobbying our representatives in government, or educating the public about what is wrong with the world. These activities are necessary for our survival, and are not crimes. Even though the government may wrongfully attempt to persecute some people for engaging in these legal activities, they must be carried out, despite the risk of incurring governmental displeasure. The more we resist, the harder it will be for them to oppress us.