From Pine View Farm

“National Security Letters” 3

Those of us who care about the Bill of Rights saw this coming (emphasis added):

Over a three-year period ending in 2005, the FBI collected intimate information about the lives of a population roughly the size of Bethesda’s — 52,000 — and stored it in an intelligence database accessible to about 12,000 federal, state and local law enforcement authorities and to certain foreign governments.

The FBI did so without systematically retaining evidence that its data collection was legal, without ensuring that all the data it obtained matched its needs or requests, without correctly tallying and reporting its efforts to Congress, and without ferreting out all of its abuses and reporting them to an intelligence oversight board.

Face it, the Current Federal Administrator doesn’t give a damn about the Rule of Law.

It’s somewhat ironic that those who claim to oppose big government seem to be those who unleash its worst aspects.

Balloon Juice weighs in:

In all seriousness, the problem is not that there were abuses and mistakes made under this system- that is to be expected. There will always be mistakes and errors in every human endeavor. The real problem lies in the expansion of the program post 9/11.

Getting worked up about the ‘mistakes’ is misguided. The bigger problem is that this program exists in its current form, period.

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3 comments

  1. Dana Garrett

    March 11, 2007 at 12:32 am

    The Nixon enemies list brings back memories. It must be a sign that you are doing something right when you make a list like that one.

     
  2. Karen

    March 11, 2007 at 2:03 pm

    Talk about talking from both sides of his face:

    “President Bush pledged swift action on Saturday over findings that the FBI illegally or improperly obtained private records during terrorism and espionage investigations

    Bush, visiting Uruguay on a Latin American tour, insisted he had confidence in FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, despite a Justice Department report of FBI misconduct that has sparked a congressional outcry.”

    From Reuters today.

     
  3. Frank

    March 11, 2007 at 4:06 pm

    And today would differ from yesterday just how?