Fresh Air, Debating the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness Program

By: Terry Gross

Narrated by: Terry Gross

A talk about the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness Program on this edition of Fresh Air. The Pentagon's Total Information Awareness Program would allow federal agencies to share information about American citizens and aliens (thru the mining of databases from driver's licenses, bank statements, and telephone records, and more), and other post 9/11 security measures. Host Terry Gross talks with two people who have opposing viewpoints. First, civil liberties lawyer David Cole, who thinks these measures are violating the civil liberties of Americans. He's a professor of law at Georgetown University, legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, and the author of the new book, Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security." (The New Press). Constitutional lawyer Douglas Kmiec supports the new security measures instituted since the September 11th attacks. He is Dean and St. Thomas More professor, the Catholic University of America. He also was head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Reagan administration. He can often be seen on PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer. His most recent book is Individual Rights and the American Constitution. (Broadcast Dates: December 18, 2002)Want more Fresh Air?

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