Do people suppose that this access to personal information will be used only for the pursuit of terrorists? --- no ... it should be used to find criminals.
law enforcement should have every tool they need to catch the bad guys. On Sunday, July 21, 2013 7:40:25 AM UTC-5, MJ wrote: > > > *Where’s the Outrage? > *By Robert Higgs > Tuesday July 16, 2013 > > Several weeks have passed since the world received Edward > Snowden<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden>’s > revelations of the massive scope of the U.S. government’s invasion of > privacy by means of collecting and storing millions of persons’ emails and > website visits, as well as information about their telephone calls. The > public appears fairly equally divided about whether these revelations > constitute a public service or a treasonous act. The U.S. government has > revoked Snowden’s passport and seeks to prosecute him for theft of public > property and violations of the Espionage Act, but at present he remains out > of the government’s reach at the Moscow airport. To my knowledge, no > demonstrations in the streets have occurred to express Americans’ outrage > with the government’s actions in secretly scooping up, without a warrant or > a showing of probable cause, vast quantities of information about them and > their personal affairs. > > The absence of a great outpouring of opposition amounts to a very bad > sign. It indicates that few people regard the government’s actions as > egregious or as portending great harm to the general public. I strongly > believe that they are both, and unless many more Americans rouse themselves > to oppose these invasions of privacy and to demand that they be terminated, > the people will have stood by quietly while the state captured all the > ground it needs to reduce them to utter subservience to their political > masters. > > We have now reached a condition in which state authorities know an immense > amount about the personal lives of virtually everyone in the United States > and many foreigners, as well. Do people suppose that this access to > personal information will be used only for the pursuit of terrorists? > Anyone who has looked even superficially into previous government > information-collection programs knows better. State authorities will, at > minimum, employ the communications data and other personal information now > at their fingertips to pursue various sorts of criminals, especially > persons suspected of tax evasion. Moreover, they will almost certainly use > the information for partisan political purposes. These gratuitous > extensions of the use of information they ought never to have collected in > the first place -- information that mocks the Fourth Amendment’s guarantees > in the most serious way imaginable -- will, however, almost certainly be > only the beginnings of the state’s use of the new power it now holds over > the general public. > > How many individuals cannot be blackmailed by someone who knows everything > about their personal affairs, much less by someone who also controls > enormous surveillance agencies, police forces, and the courts? With the > information now in their hands, state authorities will be well-nigh certain > to augment their powers by using this information to deter or cripple > political opponents, to coerce unwilling cooperation (including false > testimony) by others, and to silence anyone who might be tempted to > criticize or expose their misfeasance and malfeasance. To suppose that > American state officials will not act in these ways is naïve in the > extreme. These politicians are not angels; on the contrary. And their newly > acquired treasure trove of information places a resource of heretofore > unimagined power in their hands. To trust that they will not massively > abuse their control over this resource flies in the face of everything we > know about the kind of people they are. > > Perhaps much stronger expressions of public outrage will be made before > long. I devoutly hope so, because the longer the government gets away with > this horrendous criminal action, the greater the chance that it will > solidify its new position vis-à-vis the citizens, in part by exploiting the > potential I have just described, so that a rollback of these invasive > programs will become virtually impossible. If the American people have an > ounce of capacity for righteous indignation left in them, they must do > everything they can -- and do it quickly -- to make clear that they will > not stand for being treated worse than Big Brother’s pathetic victims in > Orwell’s *Nineteen Eighty-Four*. > > http://blog.independent.org/2013/07/16/wheres-the-outrage/ > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
