The executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union says in reaction to last year’s terrorist attacks, some government officials are trying to shield more of their work from public view. I-C-L-U director Ben Stone says conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats have joined as allies in pushing back some of the proposals, like a Congressional plan that would have made cable t-v installers and other repairmen pseudo-spies, reporting the suspicious activities of customers.Stone says they want to be sure they don’t rubber stamp approval of these plans.Some said the plan called for government-sanctioned “Peeping Toms.”Stone says concerns about civil liberties and privacy issues cut across the political spectrum.Last November, Iowa lawmakers moved to make the security plans drawn up by state emergency management officials secret, and last spring lawmakers changed the state’s public meetings and public records laws to let government agencies keep secret the security information of public utilities, airports and other municipal corporations.
