Freedom is on the march

....right outta Manhattan, and right outta the United States:

Beginning next September, virtually every car, truck and human moving through Manhattan's Financial District will be eyed by a network of closed-circuit cameras programmed to search for suspicious activity.

If you circle a "sensitive" location several times in your car, a camera inside a police command center will signal cops or security officers to check you out.

If you leave a package for more than a prescribed time, say, 90 seconds, another camera will sound an alarm.

Six years after terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center towers, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is phasing in one of the most ambitious security initiatives in the world, modeled on London's "Ring of Steel."

The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, as the plan is called, will eventually include 3,000 private and public cameras trained on the area south of Canal Street and relaying images in real time to a new command center; more than 100 license plate readers at bridges and tunnels and throughout the Financial District; street barriers that can be moved into place automatically; and an undisclosed number of radiation detectors. The plan's projected price tag, excluding radiation detectors, is $90 million.

Kelly's goal is not just to protect the 1.7-square-mile stretch that is home to the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve and the headquarters of dozens of the world's key financial institutions, but to guard the viability of New York City as a global financial center.

"New York is a tough city and it's been very, very resilient," said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert with the Rand Corp. "But the 9/11 attacks caused between $50 billion and $80 billion in insured damage and disruption, and hundreds of billions in lost business. ... The consequences of another large-scale attack clearly are enormous in terms of the impact on the U.S. economy and on the viability of the city as a global financial center."

While the business community supports the plan - indeed, private companies are contributing two-thirds of the cameras - civil liberties advocates question its impact on privacy and its worth as a terrorism prevention tool. Even some security experts believe its value as a deterrent is oversold.

A former London official credits that city's system for stopping attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

"But if you're talking about suicide terrorists, I don't think it provides a deterrent at all," said Stephen Swain, former head of the International Counter-Terrorist Unit in the Metropolitan Police Service, citing the July 2005 transit attack.

Interesting how the Fourth Amendments falls so quietly in the face of some perceived need to protect New York's financial center. If you live or work in lower Manhattan, you'll be able to kiss your freedom goodbye. Have trouble finding a parking space? Expect to be pulled over by police and asked for your papers. Carrying a heavy shopping bag and want to put it down? Better not do so for more than 90 seconds or you'll be questioned by police. Nervous about that job interview? Better not show it, or you'll be questioned by police.

The terrorists don't give a shit about our freedom, and they sure as hell don't hate it -- unless by terrorists you mean the United States Government.