Bob Barr

Fed's Plan More Scary Than Bird Flu
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

May 17, 2006

Like many Americans, I have been mildly interested, if not amused, watching the parade of warnings — some quite dire — about the possibility of a bird flu pandemic.

The feds have spent billions of dollars preparing for a pandemic that most experts predict will not occur. Numerous federal agencies are now issuing reports proving to us that our government has indeed been dutifully studying and preparing for the remote possibility of a pandemic. The latest, but by no means the last, was issued just this month by an office called the "Homeland Security Council."

In typical contradictory government fashion, the "assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism," Frances Townsend, announced the publication of the administration's "National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza." In a massive national publicity blitz, she emphasized the pandemic may never materialize and cautioned the administration did not want to "panic" anyone.

Gee, next time I don't want to panic anyone, remind me to hold a national news conference under the banner of being a counterterrorism assistant to the president.

First of all, it was interesting to learn that we even have an "assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism." I mistakenly thought that was the job of the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. But hey, why settle for one Cabinet-level secretary and a massive department to handle matters such as homeland security and counterterrorism, when you can have several?

I wonder whether Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff knows that President Bush is paying someone else to advise him on matters the secretary is supposed to be handling.

Of course, Townsend may not know that probably every other federal agency is issuing its own missives on bird flu, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which actually makes sense) to the U.S. Marshal's Service (which doesn't). If you read all of these documents as a whole — and especially if you understand that these public documents reflect but the tip of the iceberg — then the remote possibility of ever contracting the bird flu or some form of it may be the mildest of your concerns.

If in fact the bureaucrats in the White House, the CDC, the attorney general's office, the U.S. marshal's office or anywhere else in the ever-growing and already-massive federal government decide there is a flu pandemic, they can (at gunpoint) prevent your business, church or school from operating, prohibit public gatherings, close down virtually all public transportation and roadways, and deny you the ability to leave your home.

These and additional restrictions are set out in what are called "Movement and Activity Restrictions," or "MARs," and reflect powers federal law enforcement and military authorities would be able to exercise even if a person was not actually sick with the flu. If federal authorities simply "think" a person might be infected or might have been in contact with someone infected, that would be sufficient to trigger a forced quarantine. National Guard troops would be used to enforce such restrictions.

There is even language to bring retired federal employees back to work to help out. That should leave all of us with a warm and confident feeling in the pits of our stomachs — to have former FEMA Director Michael ("you're doing a great job, Brownie") Brown brought back from retirement to handle a bird flu crisis.

In what might reflect a thinly veiled effort to expand even further the surveillance powers of the National Security Agency, the flu-powers documents devote not-inconsiderable ink to "bolstering domestic surveillance," including enhanced and expanded monitoring of poultry and other livestock. It is unlikely the NSA would be interested in claiming jurisdiction over this aspect of the pandemic blueprint since few animals who might transmit flu to humans communicate by phone or Internet.

Finally, in a rare tip of the hat to common sense, the various pandemic reports note explicitly that perhaps the best defenses against a flu pandemic are decidedly low-tech and common-sense: "practice cough etiquette," "practice hand hygiene," "cover your mouth and nose with a tissue," and "if you don't have a tissue . . . [use] your upper sleeve, not your hands." The documents I've read don't specify what punishment will befall you if you sneeze into your hand or your lower sleeve rather than your "upper sleeve." There's probably a secret executive order already on the books that deals with such a horrendous contingency.

Mr. Barr occupies the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union Foundation.