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As we continue our hour-long special on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and all that it unleashed, we focus now on the government’s enthusiastic decimation of constitutional rights in the name of protecting Americans from terrorism. Documenting the steady growth of the domestic “surveillance state” is the aim of a joint project between the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Truthout.org. Under the title “Ten Years Later: Surveillance in the ‘Homeland,'” the two organizations have launched a website to document the proliferation of domestic spying programs in the US. The activities of Americans are now watched by around 800,000 individuals at the local and state levels, who may file reports to federal agencies on citizens without any warning or explanation. US residents carry out the most mundane, personal activities at risk of being recorded in one way or another by taps on phones, emails, and faxes. The infamous illegal wiretapping program started under President Bush, code-name Echelon, is explored by Truthout’s Jason Leopold, who also details the lesser known satellite spying program, Tempest. Tempest allows data to be collected by satellites that can capture images from half a mile away, from computer monitors to the ATM screen at the bank. Most recently, the Associated Press uncovered a collaboration between the New York Police Department and the CIA to monitor “ethnic communities.” The ACLU of Massachusetts and Truthout, “[h]ope their series on surveillance will help stimulate debate about whether we are on the right track in the war against terrorism.”

GUEST: Nancy Murray, Director of Education at ACLU Massachusetts

Find out more about the project, Ten Years Later: Surveillance in the Homeland at www.surveillanceinthehomeland.org. Also, for more info, visit www.privacysos.org.