Selling security
Tom Ridge says pork and possibly more civil liberties rollbacks are on the way

By A.C. Thompson

While Tom Ridge managed to hit on the biblical (the 9/11 hijack victims were carried into the "everlasting" in the "arms of angels"), the scary (lots of talk about dirty bombs), and the local (giving a shout-out to police chief Alex Fagan), pork was the key motif in his July 23 speech in San Francisco. Throughout the hour-long Commonwealth Club-sponsored talk, the head of the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly stressed the fact that he's funneling tens of millions of dollars into the tech and medical sectors – investing in biometrics, chem- and bio-weapons sensors, and new vaccines to combat germ warfare. It came off as a sales pitch: buy into this eternal war on terrorism and I'll pump some cash into the shattered California economy.

In fact, Ridge's appearance at the posh Mark Hopkins Inter-Continental Hotel was something of an advertisement since it was underwritten in part by Security Technology Ventures, a San Jose venture capital firm specializing in antiterrorism gadgetry.

"It's a different kind of war, a war in which the battlefield stretches from Afghanistan to, potentially, Alameda County," Ridge told the audience. "A war in which the doctor and scientist, the computer programmer and community leader are as crucial to victory as the general, the sergeant, or the ensign."

Ridge, the ex-governor of Pennsylvania, boasted of having $30 million to throw at corporate firms for security-related research and development. "We will have to build and sustain partnerships with the private sector.... We have to exploit to the fullest America's long-held tradition of enterprise and innovation."

At a moment like this, it's worth examining some of the creepy counterterrorism tools already under development. Homeland Security is a partner in something called the Technical Support Working Group, a cross-agency consortium involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pentagon that hires high-tech firms to create new spy toys.

According to its Web site, TSWG is looking to bankroll companies who can improve the government's "collection and enhancement of video, imagery, and audio surveillance, considering that success in countering terrorism often depends on the quality of intelligence collection."

There's also money out there for propeller heads who aim to "improve the means for detecting terrorists by developing automated tools that utilize biometrics, pattern recognition, voice and speaker recognition, and database technologies to identify terrorists."

Notably, during Ridge's platitude-heavy visit to S.F., he didn't mention whether he planned to use this stuff to track the activities of American citizens.

Or what role he's played in the mass roundup and jailing of immigrants.

Or whether he approves of the use of secret evidence against alleged terrorists.

Or whether he thinks the two Oakland school kids who were recently questioned by Homeland Security operatives about their anti-Bush comments were a credible threat to the president.

For the most part, the sponsoring Commonwealth Clubbers and media chose to lob softballs to Ridge (club CEO Gloria Duffy fawningly suggested he run for governor), though he did get hit with a couple of questions about civil liberties.

Ridge's response to a query about Patriot Act II was revealing. While defending the pending bill, a piece of federal legislation that mortifies civil libertarians, he suggested that further curbs on personal freedom and privacy may be in the offing.

"Sometime down the road there may be some other authority," he said, meaning a new power-expanding law, "we have to consider."

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