The "New and Improved" Big Brother

Everyone needs to read this. Be aware.

The "New and Improved" Big Brother

Today's comment is by Mark Nestmann, our Wealth Preservation & Tax Consultant, Privacy expert and President of The Nestmann Group.

Dear A-Letter Reader,

Not that long ago, it was easy to know when you were in a police state. But not anymore.

Indeed, in just the last 12 months, the United States has quietly brought into existence several initiatives that resurrect some of the worst aspects of a Nazi or Soviet-style police state. But they've done it in such a way that almost no one noticed.

The Old Big Brother

In the old big brother police states, you knew your place. And you acted accordingly.

Phones were tapped - often badly. Once, a colleague told me that when he was visiting Syria, he picked up the phone in his hotel room and heard his monitors chattering in Arabic. After a moment, the line became silent and he made his call - with full knowledge that every word was being transcribed for later review by Syrian intelligence.

In the classic police state, you also knew - immediately - when you'd crossed the line from acceptable to unacceptable behavior. The police would come out, kill a few members of the opposition party, and then retreat behind the barricades. This still occurs in some police states -like Myanmar - with its ongoing campaign to stamp out dissent.

Naturally, mail is read in an old-style police state. Nor were these efforts particularly sophisticated. A friend of mine from Cuba once told me that when he was growing up in the United States, his parents, who had remained behind in Cuba, wrote to him often. Not only were their letters opened, but they were also censored. Entire sentences were obliterated with a magic marker to make them unreadable.

Another example of a classic police state is the use of internal passports. In the Soviet Union, you couldn't travel outside your own village unless you received the appropriate stamp on your internal passport. Naturally, permission was often forged, or purchased in exchange for a small bribe.

The New Big Brother

The new big brother is much more subtle, yet far more intrusive. Especially if you live in the United States, you're under a pervasive and continuous surveillance of which the likes of Stalin, Hitler and Castro could only dream.

Consider wiretapping, for instance. Thanks to a new law from Congress, enacted in July - the so-called "Protect America Act," it's perfectly legal for the government to wiretap U.S. citizens, without a warrant. All that's required is for the attorney general to certify that foreign intelligence gathering is a "significant purpose" of the wiretap.

The wiretapping takes place at the telephone company switch - not at your home or office - so you'll never know whether your conversations are being monitored or not. No annoying clicks or hums. No clumsy attempts to stop chatter on the line when you pick up the phone.

Crossing the Line

Then there's the matter of political protest. For instance, plenty of Americans oppose the Iraq war. And the Bush administration isn't very happy about this domestic opposition.

But instead of sending out goon squads armed with night sticks, clubs and machine guns, the way that an old-style dictator might do, the Bush administration's response was much more subtle.

On July 17, President Bush simply signed an executive order that essentially outlaws all opposition to his Iraq war policy. If you breach this order's provisions, you could lose everything you own: your home, your car, your retirement account, your bank accounts, etc. - all based on a secret determination by the Treasury Department that you have no right to contest in court.

You Are What You Write

U.S. law has long required a search warrant to open first-class mail unless postal inspectors suspect it contains something dangerous, like a bomb, or contraband like narcotics. But last December, President Bush quietly asserted a new government prerogative to open domestic mail without a warrant, probable cause, or even suspicion that it contains dangerous materials or contraband.

Bush did this through a mechanism known as a "signing statement." This is a statement issued when a bill is signed into law, stipulating that the president has the authority to ignore certain of its provisions. Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, more than all other presidents combined.

The last time the U.S. government had a widespread mail-opening program was in the 1970s, at the height of the Vietnam War. During this period, U.S. intelligence services became highly proficient at opening mail and then resealing it without the recipient ever being the wiser. And that was 30 years ago. It's hardly unreasonable to suspect that today's surreptitious mail opening techniques are even less detectable.

Permission to Travel

Finally, there's the internal passport. In a "free" country like the United States, it would never do to issue such an obvious reminder of government oppression. People might complain. Even the Fox Network might start complaining about our eroding civil liberties.

Once again, though, the U.S. government came up with a much more subtle, high-tech, replacement for the internal passport. It's called the "Advance Passenger Information System" (APIS).

With the APIS, you'll need to obtain permission from the Transportation Security Administration to travel on any commercial airliner or ship that goes to or from the United States. Until APIS clears you, you won't receive your boarding pass. You'll also need permission to travel through the United States (e.g., if you're changing planes at a U.S. airport on a trip between two foreign countries).

Naturally, the entire process - for both domestic and international travel - will occur in total secrecy. If you're denied permission to travel, you won't be able to appeal the decision to any court. Your only recourse will be through the TSA bureaucracy.

Fighting Back Against the New Big Brother

Indicating displeasure with the old big brother was relatively simple, albeit dangerous. You simply dispatched a few thousand (or hundred thousand) demonstrators into the streets. Sometimes it worked, as in the Czech Republic's Velvet Revolution. Other times, it didn't work, as in the violent crackdown now occurring in Myanmar.

But with the new, warm and fuzzy big brother, police state machinations are so subtle that it's impossible to know if you're being watched. You can't tell your telephone calls are monitored. You can't see if your mail has been opened, or know if you're on a terrorist watch list. Your first clue that a problem exists might be when you're denied the right to board a plane, or more ominously, when your bank account is frozen.

What's more, the vast majority of Americans seem to like being monitored. It makes them feel important. Perhaps that's why reality TV shows are so popular, and why young people spend much of their free time chatting over insecure Internet connection, viewing one another on their web-cams.

However, if you don't like the idea of having your telephone calls, letters, political activities, and travel habits continuously monitored, there are steps you can take to avoid this type of surveillance. Here are a few suggestions.

1. One of the best ways to avoid telephone surveillance is to use a "throwaway" cell phone you purchase over the counter, with cash, along with a prepaid calling card. When you recharge the phone, don't use a credit card - buy another prepaid calling card, with cash.

2. To protect yourself from being secretly prosecuted for a political crime, such as opposition to the War in Iraq, move a substantial portion of your assets outside the United States. It's unlikely that most foreign countries will cooperate with enforcing civil forfeitures for political crimes. They're particularly unlikely to cooperate if the government targets your otherwise lawful activities or charitable contributions, without any accompanying criminal proceeding.

3. While it's impossible to know whether a particular letter you send to someone will be opened, you can prepare the envelope, and the contents, in such a way that the recipient will know it's been inspected. One classic way to do this is with wax seals. It's possible for those reading your mail to duplicate whatever wax seal you use. But this precaution will discourage casual opening of your mail.

4. If you travel via commercial airline or steamship into, out of, or within the United States, you won't be able to avoid the APIS "permission to travel" gauntlet. If you value your travel privacy, one way to avoid this system is to walk across the Mexican border at any border checkpoint, find the nearest bus station, and disembark in a major city. Purchase your round-trip air tickets there. You'll be subject to the Mexican APIS, but so long as your flight doesn't come close to or cross a U.S. border, it won't be subject to the permission to travel initiative.

Yes, big brother is back. Warm and fuzzy, or not, the initiatives taken in just the last 12 months by the Bush administration invade your privacy in ways you scarcely could have imagined. It's time to wake up.