FBI's newest privacy invader: Bigger and badder than ever

Just when you thought the federal government had gone as far as it could toward invading your privacy, comes this news: The FBI wants to build a massive data-mining program that would contain 6 billion records by 2012. This time around, though, Congress may put the kibosh on it.

The Associated Press reports that the FBI has asked Congress for $12 million next year to establish the National Security Branch Analysis Center, which would have 59 employees. Its purpose: use data mining to uncover terrorist "sleeper cells" and head off attacks.

That's certainly a worth cause, but two key Congressmen -- one Republican and one Democrat -- worry that the program will be a massive privacy-invader. And they believe that the FBI doesn't have the technical know-how to make the program useful as well.

Democratic Representative Brad Miller from North Carolina, and Republican Representative and James Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin are the ones opposing the plan. Miller is the chairman of the House Science and Technology investigations subcommittee and Sensebrenner is the ranking Republican.

The Congressmen released a letter pointing out a variety of problems with the proposal. They quote Jeff Jonas, a data-mining expert and IBM Distinguished Engineer, saying that "data-mining for terrorism discovery ... would waste taxpayer dollars, needlessly infringe on privacy and civil liberties and misdirect the valuable time and energy of the men and women in the national security community."

The Congressmen add, "The FBI has historically been unable to develop information systems in a reliable cost-effective and technically proficient manner."

That's putting it mildly. They point out numerous instances of incompetence, such as the FBI killing its Virtual Case File computerized records system in 2005 because they couldn't solve technical problems --- and that's after spending $170 million of taxpayer dollars. They also point to numerous instances in which the FBI has violated privacy laws.

The Congressmen have it right --- this program should be killed. It'll do little except give the feds one more way to snoop on us. And it won't make us an iota safer.