23 May 2003, Bill Berkowitz
Government-sponsored faith-based efforts formed a cornerstone of the Bush administration from the outset. Less than ten days after his inauguration, President Bush, surrounded by clergy representing a number of different faiths, issued an executive order that created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI). The initiative had two objectives: Removing "barriers" prohibiting faith-based organizations from receiving government funds, thereby allowing them to provide an array of social services; and offering tax incentives to encourage greater charitable giving. Conservatives and liberals alike were quick to voice their opposition.
Conservatives were alarmed that the Church of Scientology, the Nation of Islam, and the International Society of Krishna Consciousness and other organizations of their ilk would now become eligible for government grants. Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said he wouldn't touch faith-based money "with the proverbial ten-foot pole."
Civil liberties organizations and gay rights groups were concerned that the initiative would further blur the lines of separation between church and state, as well as the potential for discriminatory hiring practices by religious organizations that were fundamentally opposed to hiring gays and lesbians.
Lewis C. Daly of the Institute for Democracy Studies called the effort an ambitious proposal "to transfer a sweeping range of government social services directly into the hands of America's churches."
Experts Say Technology Is Widely Disseminated Inside and Outside Military
John Markoff, 20 May 2003, NYT
The research being conducted for the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency is being financed by a little known federal office called the Advanced Research and Development Activity.
Intelligence Agency Does Not Distinguish Between Terrorism And Peace Activism
Ian Hoffman, Sean Holstege and Josh Richman
18 May 2003, Oakland Tribune
"You can make an easy kind of a link that, if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that (protest)," said Van Winkle, of the state Justice Department. "You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act."
A Spy Machine of DARPA's Dreams
Noah Shachtman, 20 May 2003, Wired News
The Pentagon is about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information about a person's life, index all the information and make it searchable.
