US: A decision by the Bush administration to create a massive database on every American citizen as part of its war on terrorism has drawn the wrath of civil libertarians and editorial writers across the United States.
There has also been widespread concern at the appointment of Admiral John Poindexter, the retired admiral behind the Iran Contra scandal, to head the programme, known as Total Information Awareness.
The project was conceived by Mr Poindexter in the wake of September 11th and is being financed by the US Defence Department at a cost of $200 million.
It involves the creation of files on every American, using e-mail and telephone accounts, credit card purchases, college records, airline and rail travel bookings, highway toll booth payments, magazine subscriptions, ATM withdrawals and anything else for which there is an electronic record.
Much of this information is available commercially but military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without court authorisation.
"This is an Orwellian concept if ever I heard one," said former Senator Gary Hart, a member of the US Commission on National Security/21st Century.
The New York Times condemned the Total Information Awareness Programme as a "Snooper's Dream", ostensibly designed to enhance national security but which "could lead to a massive invasion of privacy".
As national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, Mr Poindexter planned the secret sale of missiles to Iran, with the illicit proceeds going to support pro-American Contras in Nicaragua. He was convicted in 1990 of lying to Congress and given six months in prison, though the sentence was overturned after he got immunity in exchange for his testimony.
Mr Poindexter quietly returned to government in January as a member of the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, the semi-secret body credited with funding the development of the Internet.
He is now in charge of the Information Awareness Office where the motto reads: "Scientia Est Potentia - Knowledge Is Power", and the logo is one eye on a pyramid scanning the globe.
The former Reagan aide defended the idea of military and intelligence agencies sifting through data warehouses and networked computers to create a surveillance system, saying, "How are we going to find terrorists and pre-empt them, except by following their trail?"
The database would seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity," said Defence Undersecretary Mr Edward Aldridge in response to the outburst of criticism.
Mr Aldridge described it as a "tool in the war on terrorism" that would identify suspicious behaviour, such as sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, and purchases of firearms or chemical agents for biological or chemical weapons. It would also combine consumer information with visa records, passports, arrest records and official reports of suspicious activity.
US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld, whose proposal this year to turn postal workers into government tipsters was brusquely rejected, and who discussed the new project with Mr Poindexter over lunch, said that the "hype and alarm" was a "disservice to the public".
Civil liberty groups allege that the project makes every American a potential suspect and that the potential for abuse is enormous, especially given Mr Poindexter's record.
"This could be the perfect storm for civil liberties in America," said Mr Marc Rotenberg, director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Centre.
Mr Chuck Pena, senior defence policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said that US citizens "should not have to live in fear of their own government and that is exactly what this is going to turn out to be".