Nonprofit Snoops?: Don’t let groups ‘red-flag’ names for feds

May 12,2005
The Monitor View

It could well have been just what a Department of Homeland Security press spokesman said, a response "to a hypothetical question with a hypothetical answer." But if Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is even toying with such an idea, he should think better of it.

According to National Journal reporter Siobhan Gorman, at a private meeting of security-industry officials organized by the Information Technology Association of America, Chertoff "floated an idea to start a nonprofit group that would collect information on private citizens, flag suspicious activity and send names of suspicious people to his department."