Surveillance state
Kopel to warn CU of lost liberties

by Wayne Laugesen

If you web-surf porn, smoke dope, or spend your student loan on beer, watch out. Your right to privacy is essentially gone, says David Kopel, a Boulder-based lawyer, author and former New York City prosecutor.

"Today, the government can track your e-mail and your web surfing and other electronic activities. They do this in the name of stopping terrorism, but none of your activities need to pertain to terrorism for them to monitor you," Kopel says. "In its war on terrorism, our government has secured the right to do things to the general population that have been on the wish lists of law enforcement for years."

Kopel, research director for the Independence Institute in Golden, will speak at a forum Monday, Feb. 25, sponsored by the University of Colorado Campus Libertarians. The forum is open free to the public at 7 p.m. in Math 100.

Although generally considered a political and economic conservative, Kopel finds himself at odds on civil liberties issues with the Bush Administration following the events of Sept. 11. Says Attorney General John Ashcroft:

"...to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty... Your tactics only aid terrorists..."

But Kopel has appeared recently on national TV shows such as Nightline and the McNeil-Lehrer report to do just that: warn citizens of lost liberties, cashed in for nothing more than a false sense of security.

Kopel says federal law enforcement agencies have exploited the events of Sept. 11-with the support of Congress, the courts and the administration-to lift nearly all meaningful restrictions on electronic surveillance in what he believes are violations of the Fourth Amendment.

"The Constitution says we start with a presumption of privacy," Kopel says. "I have walls, rather than a house made entirely of glass, because I want privacy. Part of being human is enjoying privacy, and not being under surveillance at all times. Privacy is a huge component of freedom."

But that's not Kopel's only concern. Having been a prosecutor, he knows that law enforcement fails when it places too much emphasis on ease and efficiency. The newfound government obsession with electronic surveillance, he says, reflects a dangerous lethargy that's more likely to aid, rather than hinder, terrorists.

"This is why Sept. 11 was allowed to happen in the first place," Kopel says. "The Clinton administration turned the CIA into a giant phone eavesdropping agency (in response to Oklahoma City). Once the terrorists figured this out, and stopped communicating with one another electronically, the CIA had no idea what was going on. A government obsessed with electronic surveillance will not stop dangerous criminals. It will focus on people who look at pornography, smoke marijuana to treat their multiple sclerosis, and cheat on their student loans."