and the check is in the mail. When Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, it made a big fuss over the new “privacy officer” who would ensure that the government did not infringe on our rights in the war on terror. However, as Declan McCullagh reveals Homeland Security employees can ignore requests from the privacy officer since the officer has no subpoena power.

If I were cynical, I might suggest Congress intended to create a toothless “privacy officer” that would fool the American people into thinking their liberty was protected without actually reigning in the Homeland Security bureaucracy.