Tapping our phone calls may be the tip of the iceberg.
What are some of the other ways we are being watched?
How about --
Posts on forums-just like this one?
Critical letters to the editor?
Being part of an unfriendly demonstration?
E-mails? Especially ones critical of the administration?
Attending rallys for the opposition? License plate numbers can be easily checked.
Distributing literature for the 'other side'?
Idle conversation with people you don't really know?
Sounds pretty cloak and daggerish, doen't it?
Back in 1950's, Senator Joseph McCarthy made quite a name for himself in his witch hunt for American Communists.
He ruined the careers of dozens of celebrities and had hundreds of others blacklisted.
He was finally stopped and disgraced, but in the interim did a lot of damage to innocent people.
Are we to be afraid of our own government?
That's a personal decision, of course, but definitely we should be alert and not complacent.
A few comments about Senator Joseph McCarthy -
1950: McCarthy launches anti-red crusade
United States Senator Joe McCarthy has accused more than 200 staff in the State Department of being members of the Communist Party.
He made the startling allegation in a public speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, saying the State Department was infested with communists and brandished a sheet of paper which purportedly contained the traitors' names.
Senator McCarthy told the Ohio county women's Republican Club that Secretary of State Dean Acheson knew the names of 205 people who were in his words still "working in and shaping the policy of the State Department".
His allegation...is entirely without foundation"
Lincoln White, State Department press officer
His comments brought an immediate denial from Lincoln White, press officer at the State Department.
Mr White said: "If he is correctly quoted, his allegation that the Secretary of State has a list of 205 Communist Party members who are working and shaping policy in the State Department is entirely without foundation.
"We know of no Communist Party members in the department and if we find any they will be summarily dismissed. We did not furnish Senator McCarthy with any such list and we would be interested in seeing his list."
Senator McCarthy has made his claims against a background of growing anti-Communist feeling.
Mr McCarthy was defeated for the Republican nomination for the Senate in 1944 but two years later was able to win the Republication nomination away from veteran Senator, Robert La Follette.
In the election he beat his Democrat opponent after a campaign of continuous misrepresentation of Professor Howard McMurray as a Communist sympathiser.
Senator Joe McCarthy presides at a hearing of the Senate Investigations Sub-Committee
Senator McCarthy's downfall came during a televised cross-examination of army personnel in March 1954
In Context
Two days after this initial outburst, Senator Joe McCarthy wrote to President Harry Truman saying he had been able to compile a list of 57 Communists.
On 20 February he delivered a six hour speech to Congress in which he referred to 81 individuals - not by name but nevertheless identifiable - who he said were members of the Communist Party or loyal to it.
By the time an investigating sub-committee was set up to look into his claims, his list of communists had dwindled to 10 names. He named Dr Owen Lattimore as "the top Russian espionage agent".
His claims were not substantiated, but many lost their jobs or reputations. He used a combination of intimidation and hearsay evidence to browbeat the accused.
His Communist witch-hunt did win him popular support. At its height, 25 states passed legislation outlawing communist organisations.
His downfall came when he turned his attentions to the US Army. His methods were finally exposed to the public during a televised cross-examination of army personnel following further unsubstantiated allegations.
In 1954 he was censured by the Senate committee. His health declined through heavy drinking and he died in 1957.
A.B.