More dragnet intelligence gathering, this time on non-U.S. NGO's

i've had the good fortune to become familiar with a number of ngo's (non-governmental organizations, or what we in the u.s. commonly call non-profits) that operate in other countries... just like in the u.s., they are set up for a myriad of purposes, but, usually, also like in the u.s., to accomplish something for the greater good of the community/city/province/region/nation that wouldn't or couldn't be done by either government or the private sector... yes, i am sure there are those organizations that are there for nefarious purposes, but i don't think that dictator bush's plan to find out which are which is the way to go...

The Bush administration plans to screen thousands of people who work with charities and nonprofit organizations that receive U.S. Agency for International Development funds to ensure they are not connected with individuals or groups associated with terrorism, according to a recent Federal Register notice.

The plan would require the organizations to give the government detailed information about key personnel, including phone numbers, birth dates and e-mail addresses. But the government plans to shroud its use of that information in secrecy and does not intend to tell groups deemed unacceptable why they are rejected.

The plan has aroused concern and debate among some of the larger U.S. charitable organizations and recipients of AID funding. Officials of InterAction, representing 165 foreign aid groups, said last week that the plan would impose undue burdens and has no statutory basis. The organization requested that it be withdrawn.

"We don't know who will do the vetting, what the standards are and whether we could answer any allegation," said an executive for a major nongovernmental organization that would be subject to the new requirements and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to harm his organization's relations with the government.

i'll tell ya what this sounds like to me... it's smack-dab in the same category as data-mining and warrantless domestic wiretapping - vacuuming up as much personal data as possible on as many people as possible, and then seeing what you've got and how you can use it against them, the same kind of bullshit that's happening inside the u.s., with airline passenger data in europe, etc., etc., ad nauseam...

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