Why spy? Because they can

Also this week: the long grim history of the IED and the future of CLINK-clink.

At first glance, it may not seem like anything bad happened to Stephen Sprouse and Kristin Douglas, two Kansas Citians who ran off to Las Vegas at the end of 2003 to tie the knot.

But in his methodical and utterly convincing “Frontline” report at 8 p.m. Tuesday on KCPT (check the listings for your PBS station), Pulitzer Prize-winner Hedrick Smith shows how the happy couple were spied on by their own government. They and 250,000 other visitors to Sin City were caught up in a massive dragnet made legal under the Patriot Act.

  Hotel records, airline records, rental-car and gift-shop receipts -- all were demanded by FBI agents in response to a vague report that Al Qaeda “could have an interest in Las Vegas” in the lead-up to that city's annual New Year's celebration. It was one of the first, but by no means the last, instance of the Bush administration using the far-reaching powers granted by Congress after 9/11 to conduct warrantless searches on its own citizens.

  The Sprouses had their personal information hoovered up by powerful computers at the National Security Agency, a fact they only learned about when “Frontline” contacted them.

  “They have no reason to be looking at me,” an indignant Kristin Douglas-Sprouse tells Smith. “I don't think that I've done anything to raise any suspicion.”

  OK, but was any real harm done to the Sprouses? Were they pulled off a commercial flight or denied credit or paid a visit by Homeland Security? No, no and no, Smith said when I asked. But as a former New York Times correspondent who was bureau chief in Moscow at the height of the Brezhnev era, Smith is not the guy to go to when seeking assurances that the dangers of domestic surveillance are overblown.

  “I've lived in a society where people operate under the assumption that somebody else is listening or watching,” said Smith, who wrote a best-selling book, The Russians, shortly after returning from the Soviet Union in 1975. “Over time people start to behave differently. They start to pull in their horns, even if they are technically free to speak and do what they want.”

  From its Cold War founding, the NSA was forbidden from eavesdropping on U.S. citizens, but that changed after 9/11. What makes Smith's report so valuable is that, in less than an hour, he lays out a short, accessible history of how the feds got into the domestic spying business in a big way.

  And just like in Iraq, the private sector does much of the dirty work. As Smith explains, privacy laws forbid the government from gathering huge troves of data about its citizens. But that doesn't mean it can't tap into the vast databases kept by companies like ChoicePoint. “Frontline” reports that more than 50 separate federal agencies are plumbing through private data in nearly 200 different spying operations. No search warrants are being asked for or issued.

  Smith chose the Sprouses to be the human face of this troubling trend because, as white Midwesterners, they embody the idea that domestic surveillance has reached every corner of America. Well, that and they had Elvis video.

  By scouring local newspapers during the week of the data sweep, Smith found the announcement of the Sprouses' nuptials. The couple agreed not only to talk to “Frontline” but to share the home movie of their Vegas wedding, held at a chapel where the King himself was in attendance.

  Speaking of royalty, it was King George III in the 1700s who allowed British troops to conduct random searches in the American colonies. As Peter Swire, a former privacy adviser to President Clinton, points out to Smith, that's why we have the Fourth Amendment -- no more warrantless snooping.

  But “Frontline” makes a solid case that the federal government now routinely sidesteps the Constitution in the name of preventing terrorism, that it's happening on a huge scale and that there are no plans to stop, at least not while permanent war is declared on a hidden enemy.

  Really, all that's missing is the tea party.

***

What to watch this week (all times Central):

  MONDAY

  “The King of Queens” is going out of production. I'd rather not use that industry phrase for retirement, but it's hard to say that the Kevin James sitcom is “ending” or “ceasing.” Because, alas, old sitcoms never die, they repeat endlessly until everyone's sick of them -- and then they repeat some more. You can catch the hourlong finale with co-stars Leah Remini and Jerry Stiller at 8 p.m. on CBS (KCTV-5), and four other times a day on KMCI-“38 the Spot” (10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.) and TBS (4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.).

  TUESDAY

  If the traumatic brain injury has become the signature wound of the Iraq War, then that makes the improvised explosive device the war's signature weapon. But as we learn on “Mission Ops” (9 p.m., Discovery Times Channel, digital cable), the IED has been around nearly a century and has long been used by guerrilla fighters to inflict damage on bigger, stronger yet oddly vulnerable armies.

  Also tonight, the Sundance Channel's new eco-friendly “Green” series celebrates Lawrence eatery Local Burger on “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” (airing 8 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. on Sundance, digital cable). The restaurant's proprietor, Hilary Brown, tells how her own food allergies drove her to create a menu of mostly local, totally organic fast food items, and we watch as a gentleman with health issues dumps his traditional fast food diet for a 7-day regimen of only Local Burger fare. Now that's my kind of diet.

  FRIDAY

  At the time I forward-posted this (last week), NBC hadn't announced if it would bring back “Law & Order” for an 18th season. By the time you read this, it probably has.  The problem wasn't ratings so much as budget -- “L&O” has slipped into TV's second tier, but cast members are still drawing glory-days paychecks. (So Fred Thompson can't run for president soon enough.) Given producer Dick Wolf's desire to match “Gunsmoke's” record of 20 seasons on TV, and TNT's interest in airing new episodes if NBC passes, the show will likely go on. In the season finale, airing 9 p.m. on KSHB-41, Harry Hamlin plays an ex-senator accused of murder. The hour conveniently ends with a cliffhanger that could presage the departure of a high-priced cast member or two.