FC: Americans love surveillance, poll says: Spy on us, please!

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200112\NAT20011213a.html
   
   Most Americans Support Government Surveillance, Poll Says
   By John Rossomando
   CNSNews.com Staff Writer
   December 13, 2001

   (CNSNews.com) - Efforts by the ACLU and other civil liberties groups
   to turn public opinion against the president's anti-terrorism
   initiatives are falling on deaf ears, according to a poll conducted by
   Zogby International.
   "Despite the best efforts by the ACLU and other rights groups... the
   various anti-terrorist efforts by the president and the attorney
   general have strong public support," said pollster John Zogby,
   president and CEO of Zogby International.
   The Zogby poll indicates that 54 percent of Americans favor allowing
   telephone conversations to be monitored; 80 percent favor allowing
   video surveillance of public places such as street corners; 67 percent
   favor roadblock searches of vehicles, and 67 percent favor having
   their mail monitored.
   John Zogby says he finds it "shocking" that Americans are willing to
   allow the government to have greater access to their personal lives in
   exchange for security.
   "We are in a moment where fear trumps other considerations," Zogby
   said. "Frankly, I guess I never thought [that] I would live to see the
   day when Americans would want their cars stopped and checked, or their
   mail monitored, but we certainly had that day."

   [...]



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