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technology and liberty column 

by clark matthews 
Pandora's Box, 1993 
 
 
 Thousands of years ago, a Greek lady named Pandora was entrusted 
with an ornate box. The box contained all the world's winds, and Pandora 
was advised it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to open it by 
herself. 

 But--in mythology's first and most disastrous example of hope 
triumphing over experience--Pandora couldn't resist the urge. The weather 
was always calm and boring, the box was convenient and she figured 
everyone would be grateful for a breath of fresh air. 
Things have never been the same since. 1993 was like that, too. 

HOPE AND EXPERIENCE 

 Living through 1993 was like watching a butterfly turn back into a 
caterpillar. A big, ugly one. Crawling down your neck. 

 Hope triumphed over experience in 1993. The year started in a winter 
of political upheaval followed by a spring of high hopes. Then it changed 
into something sinister and depressingly familiar, but with a frightening 
new twist: an aggressive, sophisticated grasp of how computer technology 
can be used to create and monitor a centrally-controlled state. 

 Bill Clinton and his wife wasted no time in opening up a Pandora's box 
of high-tech schemes and freedom-grabs in 1993. Much of their agenda 
comes direct from shadowy agencies like the CIA and National Security 
Agency (NSA), and powerful international interests well-prepared for global 
egemony. Even worse, the plans the Clintons advocate involve using 
computer and communications technology in unprecedented ways. 

ELECTRONIC TEA LEAVES 

 I'm no social critic. I understand computers and software and 
telecommunications better than human nature. Predictions aren't my strong 
point and sociology is way off my beat. 

 But I do know this: Information machines are purposeful things. They 
are designed and programmed to do certain things. They either do what 
they're supposed to or they don't. 

 The computers and networks themselves are the only reliable roadmap to 
the intentions of their owners. 

 The thought is father to the deed. Computer systems are eloquent, 
though silent, witnesses to the real intentions of our leaders and the 
secret agencies and powers behind them. Never mind what these guys say--
look instead at what their computer systems are built to do. It's a 
question of applied technology. 

 Waco is an obvious example. The nation watched a horrific, televised 
spectacle of nearly 100 people immolated in their own church compound, 
while a swarm of federal tanks and high-tech surveillance voyeurs milled 
exultantly around the pyre. Then Americans listened in shock and disbelief 
as the besieging FBI agents claimed they didn't know exactly what happened 
in the compound. 

 In fact, every part of the building was under constant video 
surveillance through the walls, the phones and the roof. The surveillance 
scheme was published in the London Times. The feds know--and almost 
certainly have videotapes of--the mysterious "man in black" they claim set 
the fire. Perhaps the fellow was wearing a black, ATF-issue combat suit--it 
would be interesting to see. 

 They did it to the Branch Davidians. They can do it to you, or me. The 
surveillance sidebands are being built into the telephone networks. 

SURVEILLANCE IS PRIVACY 

 Then consider Clinton's "Clipper" campaign. On a sunlit spring day in 
the White House Rose Garden, America heard for the first time about a 
presidential "privacy" proposal aimed at putting an eavesdropping computer 
chip from the NSA in every American telephone. 

 Clinton says that the NSA's eavesdropping "Clipper" chip is intended to 
guarantee your privacy. In fact, every reputable computer encryption expert 
who isn't employed by the NSA is certain the thing is capable of 
surveilling everything that passes through your telephone. 

 There's a legal kicker to the Clipper plan, too. Clinton claims the 
computer chip "guarantees" your privacy. But the FBI, Justice Department 
and other agencies assert they have the right to examine the "plain text" 
of anything that passes through your phone. The chip "guarantees" privacy, 
but it also guarantees surveillance. 

 Surveillance is privacy. Freedom is slavery. It started in 1993. Thank 
you Mr. Clinton. 

SMART CARDS 

 Remember when President Clinton held up a "Smart Card" before a 
joint session of Congress? Do you recall his proclamation of how "secure" 
we'll all be when our lives are tied to National "Health" Security 
computers. 

 More than a few people shivered at the thought of a computerized 
American internal passport and identity device. So many misgivings 
surfaced about Clinton's Smart Cards that the administration publicly 
abandoned them. 

 That's what they say. But look at what their new computers do. 

 Privately, quietly, the computer databases of many federal agencies 
are being unified and linked. Citizens' financial records, tax records, 
health records, pension records, property records, drivers licenses, 
relatives and much more are being collected into huge databases on 
state-of-the-art computer systems. The tiniest financial details of 
people's lives are being scrutinized by super-sophisticated "cash tracking" 
software created secretly at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

 This is happening in Richmond, Virginia, at computer facilities 
controlled by Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen--the first Treasury 
Secretary to attend all daily CIA liaison and intelligence briefings at 
the White House. 

 The first Treasury Secretary to personally involve himself in covert CIA 
operations involving U.S. and international financial institutions. 

NO GOING BACK 

 1993 is going fast. Most folks seem glad to see it go--but I suspect it 
will rise up to haunt us in the coming months and years. 1993 may be the 
year that computers started rewriting the Constitution. 

 I fear that things will never be the same between Americans and their 
government. We can't go back to simpler times. Computers and information 
technologies are here to stay. 

 As citizens, we didn't open Pandora's box--Clinton's elitist cronies did 
that. Neither can we, as citizens, close the Pandora's box of computerized 
tyranny. 

 We must understand it, identify who's using these things and why. 
And then deal with the computers, the laws and the people behind them. 
The alternative is unthinkable. 
