The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures -- is this line: "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?"

Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do something wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these -- as right as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? ("Who watches the watchers?") and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
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We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need.

In regards to the parts about "Who watches the watchers" etc, I do agree with what it is saying. But that's what lawyers are for, for a start.

None of your suggestions are good.

The latest example came just last week in the case of Khaled Masri, a German citizen born in Kuwait who was detained while on vacation in 2003, flown to a prison in Afghanistan, held for five months and allegedly beaten, shackled and injected with drugs — only to be released in May 2004 as a case of mistaken identity.

Not surprisingly, Masri is suing the government. But the Justice Department, at the request of the CIA, last week urged the federal judge in the case to dismiss the lawsuit under what is known as the "state secrets privilege," saying that the government would not be able to confirm or deny Masri's claims without the disclosure of information that could be harmful to national security and relations with other countries. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III agreed and threw out the case.

I don't think Mole at any time has said he'd be ok if he got wrongfully arrested. He probably wouldn't. The government and the system are as fucked up as the rest of us.

What I believe he's saying (and what I'm certainly saying ) is that your ideas are no good coz if you WERE wrongfully arrested, you'd still die/be stuck in prison/tortured/whatever. So they're actually about as good as what we have now...

Justice system sucks. Trouble is, its run by people. The people in the system are just as corrupt (if not more so) than those outside of it.