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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: John Carragher who wrote (18739)5/16/2006 9:02:02 AM
From: Suma  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 543637
 
The Governor of New Mexico approved of the call for National Guard troops although non of the Governors from the border states had been contacted.. However, she said Karl Rove had called her and she knew what was planned. Courtesy PBS early morning radio from local college.



To: John Carragher who wrote (18739)5/16/2006 2:32:19 PM
From: JohnM  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 543637
 
As the phone-call-checks-on-reporters story grows, it is clearer that one instrument being used are the NSL, the National Security Letters. I know these from my experiences on the local library board. They can be issued by local field agents/heads without a judge's permission. And on that basis FBI agents must be given access to all the patrons library records and the library cannot inform the patrons of such.

In this case, these, so the reports go, are at least one of the instruments being used to shut down a free press.

We are on different sides of this one, John. No doubt, you knew that.

But it's still important to think about the consequences of limiting a free press. Is this a serious step down the road to a police state, as some bloggers are now warning? Or is it a necessary element to keep US citizens safe? Or both?

And, much more important to me, why is all this done under the cloak of secrecy? With this much at stake, the electorate should be given some say, however remote and abstract in going down this path. Or do we disagree here?