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for supervisors who as they climb the management ladder, eventually become political appointees who are indebted to those who appointed them for years.

Once you even begin to mix politics with law enforcement we start getting abuse and selective targeting. Today for example, polls now show more than 60% of Americans opposed to the war in Iraq and as citizens become angry with the news of dead relatives killed in the war, invisible weapons of mass destruction, or related prisoner abuse or contract scandals. They begin to voice their dissent in their circle of friends, coworkers, or even a letter to the editor (like me). This American who has every right to express his displeasure or support for the status quo suddenly finds themselves on a growing list of "dissident suspects" which are now running into the millions. If your views become too well known you suddenly have Uncle Sam living in your computer. Thousands of authors of books critical of U.S. foreign policy don't belong to a single terrorist organization, yet their computers are, scrutinized, infiltrated, and carefully monitored. This intrusion is excessive to the point of being criminal, not to mention a huge waste of tax-dollars. What the FBI did to Martin Lutehr King in the 70,s is now being repeated en masse to more than ten million Americans who our outspoken about a variety of U.S. foreign policies.

But it can get worse - much worse. Passive surveillance is just one capability of Uncle Sam that most people will never even notice, but let's take an over-zealous agent who is hell bent on making a name for himself with a host of convictions. There is nothing but his own conscious from stopping him to actually downloading something more than spyware into a "suspect's" computer - like incriminating or fabricated evidence for example, even something unrelated like child pornography that is still grounds for arrest or imprisonment. Whether the suspect is a genuine terrorist or a political activist, the outcome would be the same - prosecution and prison.

But the potential for abuse does not end there. Imagine that these over-zealous or misguided agents decide to monitor the offices of defense attorneys, human rights organizations, or even university libraries with a minority report mentality looking for "future potential suspects". Or consider the infiltrated computer given to a relative, sold at a flea market, or traded-in for a new model. Does the new owner deserve to be monitored too? Too sinister and

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