A top international consultant in computer systems, Alexander V. Avakov was born in Baku. He now lives outside of New York City.

Just prior to completing his graduate degree in Mathematics in the Soviet Union in 1975, he was arrested for composing and distributing "subversive" pamphlets — compiled of quotes from official Soviet sources including Marx and Engels and the Soviet Philosophical Encyclopedia, excerpts from the US and Japanese constitutions, and a definition of due process of the law taken from a decision of the US Supreme Court. Sentenced to a year and half of hard labor, he was sent to a secret KGB-run camp with 25 other political prisoners including academics, journalists, diplomats, historians, and military men. He then received a one-year extrajudicial sentence for refusing to "cooperate" with the KGB.

In 1981 the Soviet Union allowed some of its intelligentsia to emigrate, and Avakov came to the United States. Here, in the land that had allured him with its promises of liberty, he found he was under surveillance between 1982 and 1988. No explanation has ever been given.

Mr. Avakov has published several books in Russian, mostly focusing on the role of the individual in a national security state, as well as two books with Algora Publishing.

This book explores the frontiers of legal theory within the United States with regards to modern surveillance and its effects on human rights....

This book explores the frontiers of legal theory within the United States with regards to modern surveillance and its effects on human rights. The author shares his personal experiences, first with the KGB and then with the US national security state. This second experience helped him realize the dangers of the routine abuses committed by the US intelligence apparatus.

He gives an overview of documents he was able to receive pursuant the Freedom of Information Act — mostly blacked out, although they describe his own “suspicious” activities, i.e. letter-writing. He broadens the discussion to address the wider issue of electronic surveillance by the government. Former CIA and FBI director William Webster describes the agencies’ use of “spiderweb” electronic surveillance against "foreign agents" with breathtaking directness.

Avakov then examines the art of electronic surveillance as well as the extent of modern “total surveillance,” with a consideration of the impact of electronic surveillance on rights, and the philosophical basis for the connection between rights and privacy.

Without privacy, there is no autonomy of person; without autonomy of person, there is no freedom. Yet the United States government employs several legal mechanisms, especially against foreign intelligence “agents,” which hinge on innovative uses of electronic surveillance. Such techniques include the use of friendly countries’ intelligence services and Echelon to avoid the ticklish problem of obtaining warrants.

The information collected by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) used to be barred from presentation in criminal court as evidence, because it entailed a much weaker “probable cause” requirement than domestic surveillance. However, developments in connection with the war on terror, such as the USA Patriot Act, allow the US government use of FISC surveillance information for criminal persecution. The resultant weakening of the exclusionary rule and due process in general violate the Constitution.

The history of political spying in the US, as well as warnings by US legal authorities, point to the dangers of electronic surveillance to human rights.

The author concludes with a discussion of practical solutions to counter these dangers as suggested in a number of publications.

By way of background, Avakov adds an extensive reading list giving some sense of the breadth of knowledge pursued by an intellectual of international caliber.