Former Congressman Bob Barr's latest special (registration required) to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution begins by stating what's more than obvious to you and me:

The most dangerous time of the year for America is right before a congressional recess, and it matters not whether the Republican Party or the Democratic Party is in charge.

What's truly scary is what that statement was in reference to. It seems that the Senate adopted what Barr describes as "a treaty that will stand as a tribute to Big Government and internationalism - the Cybercrime Treaty."

Here's why every American should be concerned about this treaty:

Now, thanks to the Senate's indifference, any person in this country who uses a computer in a manner that is of interest to a law enforcement agency of another country that has signed the Cybercrime Treaty may find themselves subject to our government collecting information on them and then sharing it with that foreign agency. The list of other nations that have already signed the treaty is not one that inspires confidence the data thus sought will be afforded proper privacy or constitutional protections. The list of signatory countries already includes Albania, Croatia, Ukraine, South Africa and dozens of others.

Why should this treaty, now part of the law of the land, concern the average American citizen?

For starters, its scope. The treaty covers not only crimes commonly considered "cybercrimes," that is, crimes of computers by computers. It covers any activities considered a crime by any signatory country that simply involves the use of a computer somewhere along the line. In other words, if the law enforcement officials in Croatia are investigating activities in their country that they consider criminal - political speech, or possession of a firearm, for example - they can now demand of U.S. law enforcement that it collect and turn over to them information they might demand which they allege involves a U.S. citizen, notwithstanding that U.S. citizen has done nothing deemed a crime under U.S. law. Of course, the U.S. citizen would be unaware his own government was thus snooping on him and sharing the fruits thereof with a foreign government.

Moreover, this latest treaty affords no privacy protections whatsoever for U.S. citizens. It also will force Internet service providers to comply, yet requires neither the U.S. government nor the foreign requesting government to reimburse Internet service providers for costs of such forced cooperation. In addition, if disputes under the treaty arise, the foreign requesting government is empowered to take the issue to the International Court of Justice. Even though the United States has not formally acceded to the court, it would be required pursuant to the terms of the Cybercrime Treaty to be bound by its decisions. Although Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in a letter to the Senate offering unqualified support for the treaty, promised the administration would not submit any disputes to the International Court of Justice, such promises are meaningless, because other nations will do so.

The ACLU provides a bit additional detail:

Even laws in other countries respectful of civil rights could pose problems if they were enforced in America. For example, France and Germany have laws prohibiting discussion of Nazi philosophy, an activity protected here under the First Amendment. Under the treaty, these countries could demand assistance from the United States to investigate and prosecute individuals for speech that is constitutionally protected in this country.

It looks like the U.S. just paid homage to our international masters by shredding the few remaining scraps of our Constitution.