While much of the public’s attention is focused on Attorney General John Ashcroft’s proposals to curb constitutionally-protected civil liberties, moves are being made in the private sector that also could have a profound impact on the government’s ability to monitor the personal lives of its citizens.

It was recently disclosed that federal aviation officials are already at work on a comprehensive airline screening system that will link up massive data bases in order to provide federal officials and airlines with thousands of details about a person’s travel patterns and generate computer-based conclusions about them.

One of the companies involved with developing a prototype collects a passengers’ travel history, telephone numbers, car ownership records, projected income, real estate records, home addresses for two decades, and even a list of a person’s magazine subscriptions. Without proper protections, massive amounts of data in so many hands could be subject to misuse. There are also concerns that although the information is supposedly to help fight terrorism, the government might later expand its use for other purposes.

Some public figures are using the tragic events of September 11 to rationalize a broad attack on civil liberties enshrined in the United States Constitution. Even William Webster, a life-long Republican and director of the FBI and CIA under Ronald Reagan, has raised questions about the Justice Department’s tactics in the war on terrorism.

Undeterred, Attorney General Ashcroft has expanded domestic surveillance, increased police powers, limited or eliminated judicial review in some instances and helped establish secret military tribunals that will provide the defendants fewer rights than they would enjoy in civilian courts or regular military proceedings.

“Former FBI leaders suggest that John Ascroft is resurrecting the discredited tactics of J. Edgar Hoover,” says Ralph Neas, president of the People for the American Way. He explains, “As the nation’s top law enforcement officer, the attorney general must uphold our Constitution and laws, not try to amend them by executive fiat.”

Members of Congress were not consulted on many of these changes. Yet, they are being urged to roll back some of the privacy protections provided by the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.

In addition to the Ashcroft moves, threats to privacy are rising on other fronts. For example, there is a push to install face-recognition technology at airports, even though the machines proved to be unreliable when deployed by the Department of Defense and can be easily fooled when a person changes his or her appearance. Further, the fear is that these devices can be used by the government to track the movements of U.S. citizens.

One of the least discussed threats to privacy is a prototype being developed by two private companies, HNC Software and Accenture. Each firm is seeking to develop massive data links that would alert airlines when a “high-risk” person attempts to board a fight. The so-called “threat index” will cause suspicious travelers to be further checked and, in theory, would mean less scrutiny for other passengers.

Ironically, conservatives and liberals are united around these privacy concerns. For progressives, it’s remembering the abuses under the FBI’s COINTEL program that was designed to disrupt and undermine civil rights and peace groups in the 1960s. Conservatives point to incidents at Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas, as examples of why government power needs checks and balances.

For African-Americans, there is another question: Can Attorney General John Ashcroft be trusted to safeguard the rights of people of color?

In an interview with Southern Partisan magazine, Ashcroft defended confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis. He blocked the appointment of Missouri State Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White, an African-American, to the federal bench. In a 1998 speech to the Christian Coalition, Ashcroft dismissed “Great Society” anti-poverty programs of the 1960s as a “great tragedy.” He told a cheering audience, “It is time for us to tell them clearly that their arrogant programs have failed, their values are corrupt and their days are numbered.”

In an editorial, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted about the former Missouri governor, “Mr. Ashcroft has built a career out of opposing school desegregation in St. Louis and opposing African-Americans for public office.”

Is this someone we can trust?