a Lot of the Libertarian Outrage Over Govt. Spying Is Just Shilling for Private Surveillance Biz

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/meet-libertarians-spying-free-market


Rep. John Mica (R-FL) has recently been a critic of government spying and what he views as a state that is violating Americans’ liberties. He voted for the Rep. Justin Amash (D-MI) amendment to rein in NSA powers; he has also made hay of reports that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) targeted some tea party groups for audits, saying that “we need to look” at restructuring the entire agency and “getting rid of those bureaucrats (the agency actually audited a variety of organizations across the political spectrum).

But while Mica has been posing as a champion of civil liberties, he has been sneaking through his own agenda: the expansion of private contractors. The congressman has long been calling for privatizing the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), claiming that it is inefficient and violates American rights. “I think we could use half the personnel and streamline the system,” said Mica, expressing similar sentiments to his campaign against the IRS (which he actually wants to eliminate altogether by implementing a national sales tax instead).

Mica is less upfront about the fact that Covenant, a private security contractor, is based in his home district. The company has airport screening contracts in a number of airports around America, supplanting the TSA at small airports in locations like Tulepo, Mississippi. One of its executives, Gerald Berry, is also a large donor to Mica. The company has upped it lobbying, hiring from a firm that actually employs an ex-employee of the Department of Homeland Security as its advocate. Mica recently gained an ally in the TSA privatization fight by the Koch-funded Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). And Robert Poole of the Koch-funded Reason Foundation argued to 'get the government out of airport screening.'

Sticking to the topic of the TSA, journalists Mark Ames and Yasha Levine pointed out in 2010 how, while hysteria about the agency’s pat downs of travelers rose, so did campaigns by Washington lobbyists funded by the Koch brothers. Individuals tied to the Koch-funded Students for Liberty, Cato Institute, and Institute for Humane Studies were all involved in the pushback, which naturally led to calls for privatization like those made by Mica.