Andrew Hagen

In the wake of a horrifying massacre, a very strange fact has come to light. Two days ago, acting in pure evil, Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean citizen and student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (”Virginia Tech”) in Blacksburg, Virginia, murdered 32 people on campus and wounded dozens more.

Yesterday, ABC News released a long report on its web site. Today, Americablog.com raised a highly alarming question based on that ABC News report. Below the “A ‘Troubled’ Young Man” sub-heading, the ABC News report stated:

Some news accounts have suggested that Cho had a history of antidepressant use, but senior federal officials tell ABC News that they can find no record of such medication in the government’s files. This does not completely rule out prescription drug use, including samples from a physician, drugs obtained through illegal Internet sources, or a gap in the federal database, but the sources say theirs is a reasonably complete search.

Americablog.com has played this as “The Bushies” trying to spy on America. More likely, however, is that this database pre-existed the presidency of George W. Bush.

A few points. First, it was an accidental release. If ABC News was going to announce the database on purpose they would have done so in a carefully crafted “special report” seemingly designed to alleviate Americans’ fears about their constitutional rights.

Second, ABC seems to have known about the database before the April 17 report. If that is true, they should admit it and state why they kept the secret rather than doing the journalistically responsible thing and report it.

Third, I would like to entertain the possibility that there is some law passed by Congress that grants the government the right to keep such a database, but unfortunately, I have fallen into a deeply skeptical camp against that scenario. For example, HIPAA does not provide for such a database. If this database is actually legal under HIPAA, then HIPAA is a total failure of a law.

Fourth, the full details of this database must be made public immediately.

The government does not own us. This database makes no sense except as part of the general project of extending government control further and further into the lives of the people.