The ill-fated Total Information Awareness program has been re-branded as (drumroll please) Terrorist Information Awareness.
The officials said the name was changed because the earlier version created a false impression that system was being created “for developing dossiers on U.S. citizens.”
Gosh, you just can’t make this stuff up.
The new! improved! TIA assures us that it will comply with all federal privacy laws and that, effectively, it will use its great power for good and not evil. Of course, if anyone has somehow failed to comprehend that basic fact of human nature — that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely — the little incident with the Texas lawmakers should make it clear that even if John Poindexter and the boys have nothing but the best of intentions, there’s always gonna be some shitkicker somewhere down the line who’s going to use the system for less than noble purposes. And speaking of that situation, it just gets better and better: all records of the incident have been destroyed by the Texas DPS.