"Lustration"

The great Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski is it's latest victim in Poland.

His secret was revealed this week through the process that Poland calls "lustration," an uncommon word meaning purification. In ancient Rome, lustration involved sacrificing animals. Today, Poland sacrifices reputations.

The power of the state in the Soviet satellites meant that the secret police were pervasive in all aspects of society. It was almost impossible not to be an informant (and now that it's gone, there seems to be as great a motivation to out former informants as there was to inform on their neighbors in the old days).

That's why it is so important to oppose secret wiretapping at the discretion of the president. Once we cross that line in the interest of "Homeland Security (and how Eastern bloc does that sound?)," and permit the state to spy on citizens with no check on its power, you begin sliding down that slope.