Once A Suspect, Always a Suspect: Feds Plan to Take DNA From Detained Foreigners, Americans
PERHAPS THIS IS SOME PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE WAY REPUBLICANS ARE PLANNING TO KEEP IMMIGRANTS OUT OF THE COUNTRY WITHOUT BUILDING EXPENSIVE WALLS or waging a messy political battle.
Using authority given by Congress, the FBI plans to collect DNA from detained foreigners, as well as any American connected to a federal crime, whether or not they have been charged. The practice alarms civil libertarians who see the move as further encroachment on our civil rights under the current political regime.
Current policy allows DNA collection through a cheek swab only from convicted felons.
The policy builds on the practice of 13 states who already collect DNA from those arrested and then turn over the data to the federal government, according to the Washington Post. "Innocent people don't belong in a so-called criminal database," Tania Simoncelli, science adviser for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post. "We're crossing a line." The
Associated Press reported Wednesday that "the new regulation would mean that the federal government could store DNA samples of people who are not guilty of any crime," said Jesselyn McCurdy of the ACLU. The new rule does not allow samples to be taken from legal immigrants or those being processed for admission unless arrested.
Of course, Crabby thinks that the entire notion of privacy is quaint in the age of the Internet, genetics testing, wireless technology and satellites. For chrissakes, Google Map is capturing people's pets in their windows and showing closeups of homes, prompting at least one couple to sue claiming their privacy was violated. In the lawsuit filed earlier this month, a Pennsylvania couple say they bought their home in late 2006 partly because of its secluded location marked as a "private road." But surely we can just dismiss them as just some bitter Keystone state kooks?
Whichever Democrat takes the keys from the Court Jester that is George Bush Jr. surely is going to have a lot of cleaning up to do. Let's not forget that the world is still waiting for America to reinstate habeas corpus for persons being held without being charged with a crime. One example of the outrageous practice: AP photographer Bilal Hussein, a Pulitzer-Prize winning newsman, was released by the U.S. military Wednesday after spending two years in an Iraqi jail despite never having been charged with a crime.
Such is the Amerika of the 21st Century. We are losing friends around the world, and January 20th cannot come soon enough.
Posted April 17, 2008
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