Lowell > Y know. Its rather interesting that the folks that wrote the > US Constitution already thought about that balance between > privacy and safety and wrote it into our 4th Amendment.
I do not know how familiar you are with Babylon 5 but in season 4 of that sci-fi show, John Sheridan felt obliged to call in the "first ones", very powerful alien beings, to tackle a Vorlon planetkiller. The Vorlons had decided to destroy settlements and planets aligned to an opposing ideology. What has this to do with terrorists? Well, the Vorlons were acting as ideological terrorists like Al Quaeda. Sheridan was not willing to let billions die on Coriana 6 simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, he applied force. The intelligence services are another kind of weapon and one that can be applied to attempt to avoid a terrorist attack. The Libertarian page I mentioned did not give a pragmatic reason for opposition to covert surveillance. It spoke in terms of rights. Here is a quote The individual's right to privacy, property, and right to speak or not to speak should not be infringed by the government. Suppose we rephrase it to include the downside The individual's right to privacy, property, and right to speak or not to speak should not be infringed by the government, no matter how many lives might be lost in a future terrorist attack which could have been prevented. People might see the second, clearer statement of the Libertarian position as less appealing and might favour Sheridan-style intervention over appeals to the rights of ancients. Regards Tim Babylon 5 - Intersections in Real Time William: You must understand. He was expendable from the moment he arrived. We are all expendable, just parts in a machine. _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
