There will be blunders . and bluster

The juxtaposition of the Spitzer sex scandal and the debate over whether telecom companies should have retroactive immunity for participating in the Bush administration’s post-9/11 warrantless wiretap program is rich in inane irony.
The president promised to veto a House surveillance bill lacking an escape clause for parent companies of the three largest mobile carriers, which face more than three dozen lawsuits alleging privacy violations in connection with anti-terrorist eavesdropping. President Bush was especially vociferous last Thursday, the day of the scheduled House vote and the day after a disgraced Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York.
“This litigation would undermine the private sector’s willingness to cooperate with the intelligence community, cooperation that is absolutely essential to protecting our country from harm,” warned Bush. “This litigation would require the disclosure of state secrets that could lead to the public release of highly classified information that our enemies could use against us. And this litigation would be unfair, because any companies that assisted us after 9/11 were assured by our government that their cooperation was legal and necessary.” Perhaps necessary, but not necessarily legal.
Indeed, the debate pitting Bush against privacy advocates is rife with sky-will-fall hyperbole.
“Companies that may have helped us save lives should be thanked for their patriotic service, not subjected to billion-dollar lawsuits that will make them less willing to help in the future,” Bush stated.
Civil libertarians are just as strident in lamenting the obliteration of personal privacy if telecom carriers are free to transform every one-to-one confidential electronic communication into an old-fashioned party line, or unwitting teleconference.
Lost in the polarized debate is the more practical reality that reigns supreme in the Digital Age. We voluntarily leave a digital trail behind with every cellphone call, text message, e-mail and binary-coded transmission. Most of the time (supposedly) such communications remain private, until law enforcement or the intelligence community believe there’s reason to listen in. Just ask Spitzer, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and everyone else who manufactures unique digital DNA by the minute. Indeed, we’ve now been enlightened about the existence of the Emperors Club and Client No. 9.
Digital DNA can be potent, pernicious stuff. You can get steamrolled if you’re not careful.