To the Point

How Much Privacy Are We Willing to Sacrifice?

As head of the Pentagon-s Office of Information Awareness, former national security advisor John Poindexter has proposed a vast electronic dragnet that would sift through massive government and commercial databases for suspicious patterns that might be clues to terrorist activities. Total Information Awareness would scan driver-s license and passport applications, school records, bank statements, divorce decrees and complaints from nosy neighbors. Critics call it a waste of money or, a potential Orwellian spy machine that would destroy the privacy rights of Americans. We explore the applications and implications of such a system with technology experts from the press and Princeton, a Heritage Foundation homeland security analyst, a privacy advocate, and Congresswoman Jane Harman, the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security. Newsmaker: Oil Tanker Leaks Havoc on Spain and Portugal The oil tanker Prestige, which was damaged by storms off the coast of Spain and Portugal, has now sunk in more than two miles of water. The environmental damage could be twice as bad as Alaska-s Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. Ian White, managing director of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, has more on the accident its implications for the environment. Reporter-s Notebook: What Would Jesus Drive? A full page ad in Christianity Today shows a pensive Christ by a busy freeway, with the headline, -What Would Jesus Drive?- The ad is part of a massive effort by the Evangelical Environmental Network to get church-goers to reconsider their SUV-s. Bob Edgar of the National Council of Churches of Christ traces the coalition-s search for more fuel efficient vehicles and its strategy for raising the consciousness of Americans.