Colorado Republicans Tap Database for Political Purposes

[kpete]

Rocky Mountain Hijinks: Colorado Republicans Tap Database for Political Purposes
Submitted by: TheFatLadySings on Tue, 12/18/2007 - 08:04

We have been hearing from the Bush Administration about the need to create federal databases, and to intercept electronic communications without the use of warrants. First we were told that spying would help to keep us safe from terrorists. Now we have learned, via the New York Times, that prior to 9-11, Bush spied on Americans' communications with Latin America to prosecute its "War on Drugs." We are informed in the same article that Bush sought to build his capacity to gather information about entire neighborhoods without warrants.

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The case of Cory Voorhis, a fifteen year veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer charged with illegally accessing the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, illustrates the manner in which centralized intelligence databases can be wrongly used for political purposes. Mr. Voorhis' case is interesting because it has become a cause celebré for the far right, and is being used to influence public perception of immigration policy and of immigrants.

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This case raises a number of troubling questions:

If Voorhis is able to win his case in court by claiming that any federal employee can access a federal database for any reason whatsoever and pass information gained to a Congressman, has he established a dangerous new law through precedent?

Is the hoopla on the right regarding this case a way to drum up public support for new presidential spying capabilities?

Is it acceptable to misuse campaign finance funding to simultaneously incite racist sentiment and undermine our Constitutional Rights?

This is merely one example of one FBI agent misusing a database. How many more examples might be lurking undetected?

Is there a relationship between this case and the recent revelations that Bush was already spying, prior to 9/11, on American communications in Latin America?

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The story describes the local misuse, by Republican politicians, of a criminal database to further a political campaign. Coincidentally enough, the case involves communications with Latin America in the War on Drugs.
more at:
http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/251