Fears feel foreign

I have provided more personal details than I ever knew I had.

I have supplied details of all of my travel outside of the USA, including my departure and return dates, the destinations and number of days outside of the country for the last five years. My fingerprints and palm prints are now on record, not once, but twice in the last four years. I have provided not only my details, but also those of my family, those of my children, my wife and my ex-wife and of alimony and my tax payments over the past five years. I have provided details of every organization I have ever belonged to, which ranges from the Boy Scouts to the Museum of Fine Arts. It is unlikely the US government has as much information about the average person reading this blog as they do about me.

You see I am a foreigner, an immigrant and as such less, than a US citizen, a status to which I still aspire.

I have an alien registration number and a "green card" giving me the privilege of permanent residency and I have lived and worked here legally since arriving in May 2000.

What I do not have is the right of habeas corpus.

That is the right to petition a court to appear before them to show that any detention for, in the words of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, "WRONGFULLY AIDING THE ENEMY", is unjust or in error.

Of course, it will never happen. I will not be detained simply because I will never aid the enemy of the United States of America. But, with so much information now so freely distributed, with reports of hackers and data losses (I have been notified twice now that my data was made available by mistake – thanks Boston Globe) what are the chances of identity theft occurring or even worse, being in the wrong place at the wrong time? If not identity theft consider this:

Moore is the 9^th most common surname in the USA and is possessed by 0.312% of the population (9,360,000 people). Even Geoffrey, considered the English spelling of Jeffrey is ranked 386^th most popular and used by 0.032% of the population (960,000 people). The combination is not a search possible on the Census Bureau website and so in truth, I hesitated even to post this out of concern for raising my profile. But fear makes victims of us all.

I just give thanks that my name is not James or Mary Smith.