'Nobody is safe from' scrutiny of program

You call the police to report a burglary at your home. In their report, detectives note that the burglar did not find your collection of antique firearms.

Two years later, an officer pulls you over for speeding. He routinely runs your name through a new database called LINX that integrates federal, state and local police information. It says you own a collection of firearms. So the officer decides to search you, your car and your passengers.

The LINX system's unprecedented power to catch criminals and thwart terrorists also carries a serious potential for abuse of civil rights, law enforcement observers say. And the ramifications for free speech and other constitutionally protected activities such as political opposition to administration policies in Iraq are profound.

For example, the FBI has begun to gather intelligence on the tactics, training and organization of anti-war groups, according to The New York Times.

Although the FBI is so far saying that its intelligence information will not be included in LINX, the bureau plans to eventually integrate LINX and similar systems into a single, national warehouse of data.

"The potential for abuses (of LINX) is very strong and the likelihood very high," said Herman Schwartz, an American University law professor who has chronicled the FBI's history. "People won't know what hit them. So long as this stuff is secret and there is no real oversight, how does anyone know whether or not they are following our private lives?"

LINX, now under development in the Puget Sound, will have an oversight board composed of the leaders of its law enforcement participants. But Schwartz does not consider that real oversight.

"Local police are far less trained and much more prone to abuses," he said. Schwartz said a citizens panel should watch over LINX.

Intelligence files contain an "awful lot of gossip," Schwartz said.

"Nobody is safe from this," Schwartz said. "I don't care what your politics are."

But nobody is safe from terrorism either.

One of the lessons of Sept. 11, 2001, is that intelligence-sharing is inadequate, since one part of government had the names of the terrorist hijackers and didn't share them with the other, said Steve Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington, D.C., think-tank focusing on national security.

"That's a problem that needs to be fixed. It can't be permitted to happen again," Aftergood said.

"On the other hand, I'm a little wary about mixing the name of every drunk driver with the name of every international terrorist," he said.

The "single biggest issue" is the risk of propagating erroneous information throughout the intelligence and law enforcement systems, Aftergood said. A misspelled name, even two people with the same name, could trigger suspicion.

"You won't know (you are in LINX) until you are pulled off an airplane," he said. "When it starts to affect your life, you will begin to suspect there is a problem of this kind."

Even LINX supporters agree with such concerns.

The agency's oversight board has the power to veto and set policies. A working group of legal advisers, including from the state attorney general's office, is helping to develop the operational protocols.

"This isn't the federal government just coming in" and tossing its weight around, said Scott Jacobs of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which heads the LINX initiative locally.

"We need to do this, and we want to do it right. We want to be above board because this is critical to the safety of our country," Jacobs said.

ABUSE PROTECTION

Participation in a system to fight terrorism by sharing information hits a speed bump at Seattle city limits. Seattle's unique intelligence-gathering ordinance, enacted 1979 in the face of police abuses, contains restrictions that make outside agencies wince over secrecy. To ensure compliance, the ordinance is overseen by giving a civilian auditor with access to confidential police files. The auditor is required to reveal violations not only to the police chief, but also to the person or group about which the information was gathered.

The possibility that classified information might become public frightens Seattle's law enforcement allies enough that city police might not be allowed to participate fully in LINX without some revision to the ordinance.

Police themselves don't want the ordinance scuttled, but they do want to fine-tune it. Mayor Greg Nickels wants the ordinance analyzed, with input from experts and interest groups. But the American Civil Liberties Union is against any tinkering.

Seattle's ordinance was enacted in 1979 after the Coalition on Government Spying, made up of various civil-liberties groups, won access to police intelligence-unit files and found abuses in the name of intelligence gathering.

P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky can be reached at 206-448-8072 or paulshukovsky@seattlepi.com

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