To give you a yes or no answer, I would have to believe that this current tracking of telephone and perhaps computer interactions would result in prevention of a repeat of 9/11--a premise I cannot buy into.
thanks...
it is indeed difficult to prove a negative or to refute an argument from ignorance (meaning since no proof is available, no positive assertion can be made)
you may be right
but common sense tells me that *if* there had been a tool that enabled our government to pick up communications between the 9/11 terrorists and al-quaeda (or even bin laden)...a higher probability of success would have been achieved in repelling the attack....
something we will never know, and for now we can only argue that thus far, having thwarted further attacks, the NSA intercept program may be instrumental
OTOH, I can see innocent citizens of the US of A becoming entrapped in time-consuming and costly legal battles to prove their innocence of whatever.
The Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Hearings are NOT straw men or non sequiturs in this context; rather, a repeat of those black marks on our country's history and, in light of current domestic spying, should be of concern to all of us.
however, point in fact, we have NOT seen such activity...
unless and until we see innocent americans being hauled into courts and tried for sedition, with no supporting evidence, i do indeed consider the salem witch trial and mccarthy hearings (both not necessarily analogous, btw) to be bogus in terms of the current debate
furthermore, the federal government has always had broad legal powers to monitor telephone, email, pagers, etc...and during a time of national 'emergency' those powers are expanded, noting particularly there are NO legislative limits on wiretapping conversations that occur overseas...
unfortunately, once the enemies of our state infiltrated this country and were able to use our electronic infrastructure to communicate their plans, i see no other recourse than to make the surveillance a 'two way street'
if we can only monitor the communication strictly OUTSIDE our borders, we are in trouble....and if the courts come down against the NSA intercept policy as a violation against current law, then the law should be changed to accommodate the new and emerging threat |
