more on Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts >:o >:o

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: TClaburn () cmp com
Date: December 16, 2005 4:20:40 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: NMunro () nationaljournal com
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without  
Courts >:o >:o

> But the chief problem, which the NYT article does not highlight, is  
> that
> AL-Q has chosen to blur the lines between civilian and military,  
> law and
> war, criminal and innocuous. They buy tickets on our airplanes, use  
> our
> phone lines, hide behind our laws, hire our lawyers, locate themselves
> to shelter under the protection of our legal regime, and cite our
> prisoner-protection rules, etc.

That sounds a lot like organized crime. We've managed to deal with that
reasonably well over the years without contravening the Constitution.

> Some have suggested that the least-painful solution to this dilemma
> would be to drain the terrorist swamp in the Middle East, rather than
> writing more and more intrusive and uncertain rules to regulate an
> high-stakes hunt around the world for terrorists.

Are we draining the swamp or, apologies to David Bowie, putting out  
the fire
with gasoline?

Argument by metaphor obscures the complexity of the situation in Iraq.

If laws like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act need to be  
changed to
deal with terrorism, change them lawfully rather than skirting them  
in secret.

Thomas Claburn, Editor-at-Large
InformationWeek, CMP Media, Inc.
600 Harrison St., 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94107
tclaburn () cmp com
415.947.6820

http://www.informationweek.com
http://www.lot49.com



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