Identity Theft and National Security

Reported by Reuters:

Key Data on Millions of Veterans Stolen

Personal data on about 26.5 million U.S. military veterans was stolen from the residence of a Department of Veterans Affairs data analyst who improperly took the material home, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Monday.

The data included names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth for the veterans, Nicholson said, but "there is no indication at this time" that the data had been used for identify theft.

Nicholson said the theft of the data took place this month, but declined to identify the employee or the location of the burglary.

This should be interesting to watch. The neoconservatives will no doubt be outraged that the privacy of these veterans has been violated. But the irony is that these same neocons fully supported President Bush and the NSA in their efforts to spy on Americans. Did they ever consider for a moment the possibility that the information obtained from domestic surveillance could be exploited if it ever fell into the "wrong hands" (assuming, of course, the government constitutes the "right hands")?

Now someone please try to convince me that it's a good idea to allow the government to have sensitive information on its citizens.