"No one even knew it was happening."

The White House Internet director, addressing the use of Internet tracking technology by a contractor on the White House web site, was quoted as saying that "No one even knew it was happening."

Actually, there are two possibilities: either the White House Internet director is telling a bald-faced lie, or he allowed tracking code he knows nothing about to be put on White House servers by an outside contractor. Which is worse?

In either case he, and whoever supervises him, should be summarily fired.

Although we are assured that "no personal information was collected," the fact is that Internet tracking technologies have the capability of collecting such information. They were all originally developed by the porn industry to keep track of customers visiting porn sites.

Rather than meekly accepting assurances that the technology deployed on the White House site is not being used to collect data on individuals, the press should be asking: CAN it be so used? Has it ever been so used by the contractor or any of its "customers"?