Wired News: Bush's Year of U.S. Surveillance

The executive branch's attempts in 2002 to peer into the lives of Americans were more than a little similar to the exploits of Middle Earth's would-be rulers.

For J.R.R. Tolkien fans, the scheme sounds eerily familiar.

"Concealed in his fortress (Sauron) sees all. His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth and flesh," says Saruman, the evil wizard allied with Sauron, in The Fellowship of the Ring.