Is Big Brother watching you?

Exactly five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and five days after President Bush admitted secret CIA prisons exist, American Civil Liberties Union spokeswoman Elizabeth Wong on Monday discussed the ties between the two at the University Student Commons. Advertised by fliers warning, “Big Brother is Watching You,” Wong’s lecture paralleled the themes of George Orwell’s novel “1984” by emphasizing the U.S. government’s post- Sept. 11 emphasis of national security over privacy.

“The Patriot Act is only one example of how American civil liberties have been treated with contempt,” said Wong, public education and fundraising coordinator of ACLU of Virginia, based in Richmond. “The Bush Administration has taken advantage of the tragedy of 9/11 to intrude into the private lives of innocent Americans by reading their e-mails, listening to their phone calls and even secretly monitoring their places of worship.”

Wong discussed the March renewal of the Patriot Act, the National Security Agency’s reported spying on domestic e-mails and the issue of wiretapping phone calls. She expressed concern about secret CIA prisons and the Real ID Act, which among other things set national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses.

Wong cited two men, Canadian Maher Arar and German Khaled El-Masri, who were mistakenly taken into custody and sent to U.S. detainment centers in Syria and Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003. The men claim they were tortured, beaten and in the case of El-Masri, raped during their time in captivity. After 13 and five months in captivity, respectively, the two were released.

Macedonian border officials took El-Masri into custody and transferred him to the CIA because they confused him with al-Qaida operative Khalid al-Masri.

“It is precisely because innocent people get caught up in this system that we have to stop their use and must instead rely on the rule of law,” Wong said.

The process in question is called extraordinary rendition, in which the CIA captures and sends suspected criminals or terrorists outside of the country for imprisonment or interrogation. This is the point where critics argue the CIA has performed torture outside the confines of U.S. law in so-called secret prisons, which reportedly exist in Europe and around the world. According to Wong, the CIA practiced extraordinary rendition before Sept. 11 but not nearly as often since then.

During a 2004 interview with the British press, former CIA agent Robert Baer said of the detainment centers, “If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear-never to see them again-you send them to Egypt.”

After President Bush recognized last week the existence of these centers, he defended the need for them, claiming they hold “key operatives” involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, the USS Cole bombing in 2000 and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Although Bush did not elaborate on why detainment of suspected terrorists needs to occur outside of the country, he asserted the U.S. never tortures its suspects.

Coinciding with Bush’s declaration, last week the Pentagon issued its revised Army Training Manual, in which it states that such detainees should be “treated humanely and in accordance with U.S. law, the law of war and applicable U.S. policy.” The manual bans using hoods, covering eyes with duct tape, forcing nudity, electrocuting, burning and using any other method that inflicts physical harm.

After discussing secret prisons, Wong focused on the Real ID Act of 2005, which seeks to deter terrorism by requiring all states to conform to national standards for driver’s licenses and other state-issued identification cards.

Wong expressed concern that the cards could store medical information, retinal scans, fingerprints, social security numbers and other personal information on radio frequency identification chips, which transmit such information via radio signals.

Ben Derwent, a freshman electrical engineering major, expressed concern similar to Wong’s.

“It’s not a very secure method of transmitting information,” Derwent said of the RFID chip technology, explaining it is easy to hack. “I don’t know if the student cards have something similar, but you can record what time and what place somebody was. I don’t really like that at all. It’s nobody’s business.

“The more you end up finding out about technology,” he added, “the more freaked out you get.”

Kate Hutchinson, a fifth-year psychology major, said some of the government’s security initiatives are “really just fundamentally wrong no matter what side you stand on, whether you’re liberal or conservative.”

Hutchinson said Wong’s presentation made her want to raise awareness of the issues presented. She plans on talking to people about them and posting on message boards.

“I work as a bartender so I will talk to people that come into my establishment and get them aware of it and maybe even push them a little bit to at least register to vote,” Hutchinson said.

While the Big Brother fliers and banner in the Commons lured some students like Hutchinson to Wong’s presentation, others were not as easily intrigued.

William Smith, a senior English major, saw the fliers and considered attending the event, but decided against it.

“All the petitions and all the speakers can make people think,” he said, “but.I’m going to keep going to class and keep doing the same things I’m going to do, so it just makes me depressed.”

Others, however, lamented not knowing about Wong’s presentation. Freshmen Marlotte Hollis and Jessica Williams said they would have attended the event if fliers were posted in the dormitories.

Whether or not students attended, Wong said her advice was for everyone.

“Stay informed and keep up with the news because the more you read about it, the more you get scared,” Wong said. “And you should be scared of what this administration has done. The abuses of power have just been so overwhelming that the system of checks and balances needs to work, and in order to work, Congress needs to have that push from the American public that says: we need to stop this.”

Wong recommended VCU students register to vote and voice their opinions. Wong would not endorse a particular candidate for the 2008 presidential election, but after she made her closing remarks, one audience member was not so reserved, yelling, “Stephen Colbert in ’08!”