BY FAX AND MAIL

November 18, 2002

Senator Tom Daschle
SH-509
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Trent Lott
SR-487
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senators Daschle and Lott:

We write to you as a nonpartisan coalition of organizations from across the
country to urge you to adopt an amendment to the pending Homeland Security
Act that would stop further development of a Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) system called "Total Information Awareness" (TIA).

According to DARPA's own documents, TIA will collect and mine vast amounts
of information on the American public, including telephone records, bank
records, medical records, and educational and travel data. TIA also proposes
to connect with a massive system of biometric identification.

There are no systems of oversight or accountability contemplated in the TIA
project. DARPA itself has resisted lawful requests for information about the
program pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

Newspapers across the country have blasted the Department of Defense
surveillance system. The New York Times said today that "Congress should
shut down the program pending a thorough investigation." Earlier the
Washington Post wrote, "the defense secretary should appoint an outside
committee to oversee it before it proceeds."

We urge you to act immediately to stop the development of this
unconstitutional system of public surveillance.

Sincerely,

 

Marc Rotenberg Executive Director Electronic Privacy Information Center	Chris Hoofnagle Legislative Counsel Electronic Privacy Information Center
Lisa Dean Director Center for Technology Policy Free Congress Foundation	Ken McEldowney Executive Director Consumer Action
James Landrith Editor & Publisher The Multiracial Activist	Nihad Awad Executive Director Council on American-Islamic Relations
Kit Gage Director First Amendment Foundation Director National Committee Against Repressive Legislation	Kathryn Serkes President Square One Media Network
Beth Givens Director Privacy Rights Clearinghouse	Steven Aftergood Senior Research Analyst Federation of American Scientists
Remar Sutton Coordinator Privacy Rights Now Coalition	J.C. Pierce Director Consumer Task Force For Automotive Issues
Lee Tien Senior Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation	Michael Shames Executive Director Utility Consumers' Action Network
Jane M. Orient M.D. Executive Director Association of American Physicians & Surgeons	David A. Wallace Assistant Professor School of Information University of Michigan
Katie Corrigan Legislative Counsel American Civil Liberties Union	Manon Ress Research Associate Consumer Project of Technology
Lynne Bradley Deputy Director Office of Government Relations American Library Association Washington Office	Kelly Garrett Doctoral Student School of Information University of Michigan
Dr. Charles N. Davis Executive Director Kathleen Edwards Center Manager Kristin Birks Web Manager Jennifer M. Schmidt Financial Manager Freedom of Information Center	Michael D. Cohen William D. Hamilton Professor of Complex Systems, Information, and Public Policy School of Information University of Michigan
Kathy Williams Managing editor Herald Democrat (Sherman-Denison, Texas)	Margaret Fung Executive Director Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Prudence S. Adler Associate Executive Director Association of Research Libraries	Stephanie Krueger-Blum University of Michigan
Hannah Chua Graduate Student University of Michigan	Coralee Whitcomb President Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Robert L. Oakley Washington Affairs Representative American Association of Law Libraries	Phyllis Schlafly President Eagle Forum
George Getz Communications Director Libertarian Party	Evan Hendricks Editor and Publisher Privacy Times
Dawn Richardson President Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education	Michael Arnold Glueck MD Syndicated Columnist The Medicine Men Column
Danielle Brian Executive Director Project On Government Oversight	Audrie Krause Executive Director NetAction
Jean AbiNader Managing Director Arab American Institute	Richard Sobel Cyber Privacy Project
Mary Day Kent Executive Director Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, US Section	Michael Scott Center for Economic and Social Rights
Tom DeWeese President American Policy Center	Jason Catlett President Junkbusters Corp.
Jeff Chester Executive Director Center for Digital Democracy	Linda Foley Executive Director Identity Theft Resource Center
Maggie Bierwirth Senior Legislative Counsel People For the American Way	Deborah Pierce Executive Director PrivacyActivism
J. Bradley Jansen Adjunct Scholar Competitive Enterprise Institute	Richard M. Smith Internet Security and Privacy Consultant
James Plummer Policy Analyst Consumer Alert	Robert Bulmash President Private Citizen, Inc.
Sharifa Alkhateeb President The North American Council for Muslim Women	Susan K. Martin, Ph.D. Program Officer for Scholarly Communication Association of College and Research Libraries
Carole Doeppers Privacy Consultant