Off The Cuff

Spy Law Not Good Enough, Bush Wants More

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, News And More Stuff, Political News on Sep 19 2007

Welcome back!

There was a law passed in August, hastily I might add, that gave the government temporary power to eavesdrop on supposed “foreign terrorists” without warrants. Now, Mr. Bush wants that law to be made permanent and expanded to cover more. Mr. Bush says that if that does not happen,

“Our national security professionals will lose critical tools they need to protect our country. Without these tools, it will be harder to figure out what our enemies are doing to train, recruit and infiltrate operatives into America. Without these tools, our country will be much more vulnerable to attack.”

Although this could be a bit confusing, essentially the law states that our government would have the right to eavesdrop on a communication of someone “reasonably believed” to be outside the United States. Of course, there could be an American at the other end. However, the provision there is that the focus is on the other guy, not the American. Uh huh.

Thing is, the technology has changed so much that foreign communications can actually flow through the U.S. So, the wiretaps can happen under this current law without warrants from a court. In addition, Mr. Bush wants a retroactive immunity provision for those companies that have already co-operated with the government concerning wiretaps. Now that one I have to agree with since they probably didn’t have the option of saying no.

Perhaps I simply do not know enough about this law but, from this point of view, more such laws will eventually bring about such measures for American citizens as well. Soon, there will be no privacy at all, not that there really is now, but at least we could possibly count on not being called terrorists if we say that someone is “da bomb!” in a conversation. Okay, that was probably a little silly but not really. When these folks listen to the conversations of Americans and pick out those that sound like terrorist plots even if it’s totally innocent, then we have a huge problem. I know someone is going to challenge me on this.

So, for those who challenge me, please tell me how you KNOW that they are not doing this? If I can get that answer, I will be a happy camper. If not, well, we have this much government now. I am certain they can pile more on. It’s only a matter of time.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!