An Erosion of Civil Liberties
Americans understand the need to be vigilant against terrorism, but they also want to preserve the civil liberties and investigative safeguards that make America a free nation. Overturning the domestic security guidelines issued by the Ford administration to rein in investigative abuses promises to upset the delicate balance between security and liberty that the nation has been struggling to maintain since Sept. 11. Before it was brought under control, the F.B.I. routinely infiltrated peace groups, electronically monitored civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., and generally engaged in spying against Americans who were critical of the government.

The Justice Department is insisting that the guidelines unduly tied the hands of the F.B.I. Field offices, for example, were required to get approval from Washington before they could begin investigations. Undercover agents could not be sent into churches, synagogues or mosques unless agents could produce probable cause to believe someone there had committed a crime. There were also restrictions on F.B.I. agents conducting searches of public information, including Internet searches, without probable cause.

Clearly, F.B.I. agents should not be barred from conducting Internet searches, even just to pursue hunches. But if agents were routinely to do searches for Web sites and chat room comments critical of the war in Afghanistan, and follow up with personal visits, the rights of law-abiding Americans would be infringed. Similarly, the government wants more freedom to use "data mining," even without probable cause. That could mean that F.B.I. agents will show up at the doors of people who order politically unpopular books on Amazon.com or make phone calls to organizations critical of the government.

Lifting the ban on monitoring religious institutions raises similar issues. Houses of worship need not be off-limits to F.B.I. investigators, any more than public meetings of secular organizations should be. But there will be an inevitable temptation to target organizations — whether mosques, synagogues or political groups — simply because of government antipathy. Loosening the rules for recruiting confidential informants, another step announced yesterday, could easily lead to a resumption of questionable practices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/31/opinion/31FRI2.html