letters

'Rogue' program makes us safer Regarding your editorial concerning wiretaps: I don't care how many of my phone calls or e-mails are monitored by the FBI , CIA or anyone else ["Lost opportunity," Editorial, July ...

[curious]

Utter nonsense.

Fantasy based on fear.

[B M Ryan]

Eveylin Ain said:
"That isn't just freedom of speech, it is hateful speech when you say 99 percent of children with autism are brats," said Evelyn Ain, whose 8-year-old son has been diagnosed with autism and who organized the demonstration. "I'll tell you, I wish I had a brat."

That is not what Savage said. He said that 99 percent of children DIAGNOSED with Autism. Her statement accused him of saying 99 percent of the 1 percent that actually were autistic were brats. Big difference.

[liner]

Re: "Rogue" program, It's your right, sir, not to care how many of your phone calls or emails are intercepted by our, excuse me-Bush's government, but most of the rest of us consider ourselves as freedom loving citizens of the great United States of America, who vehemently object to the trampling of our Constitution by those who would subvert our hard fought rights in the name of "security". For then, we would be neither secure nor free.

[Jim from Middle Georgia]

I would love to hear what this idiot would say if Hilary Clinton was the President and had implemented this.

[Liberty for All]

Re: Rogue Program, Mr Gerald Fortsch, I hear the government is coming to search your wife's underwear drawer. Still think you have nothing to hide? Oh, you think thats going to far? Well, maybe you should have not been cheering when our great country's Constitution was being torn to shreds.

[B M Ryan]

Liberty for All wrote:

Re: Rogue Program, Mr Gerald Fortsch, I hear the government is coming to search your wife's underwear drawer. Still think you have nothing to hide? Oh, you think thats going to far? Well, maybe you should have not been cheering when our great country's Constitution was being torn to shreds.

Thats the only thing "Pink" in MY house. By the way it is "too far" not to far.

[Tommykey]

So, will Gerald Fortsch volunteer to let the CIA and the FBI monitor every room in his house via web cams? After all, he has nothing to hide, right?

[Liberty for All]

Please read if concerned about “Rogue Programs!!!”

B M Ryan, Sorry, I am sophomore in college, currently attending a 400 series English course, and I should know better, despite writing this on my cell phone during a lunch break. I only wrote this response because I was so appalled by a citizen so willing to give up his own rights for his safety.
I suggest that Mr. Gerald Fortsch, who should be honored that his view, despite how much I despise it, was published, see a fictional movie, "V for Vendetta." In this movie, the hero accuses the citizens themselves for the lack of rights they receive.
I understand him for being scared; it is a scary world out there, but we have our mothers to hold our hands.
Mr. Fortsch and others like you must learn that most people are not out to hurt our great country. Often people who share my position are seen as anti-patriotic, but in fact we are just the opposite. We do not deny that there are murders out there, such as Bin Laden or Hussein who hate America because of vendettas and actions of our country that could not be avoided, but most countries and people in the world love these United States of America, and would only do harm to themselves if they attack us. Even in Iran, most citizens support the United States, despite the unelected, strongly religious conservative body. We currently live in a global community; we invest in other countries as they invest in us. Why would someone who has billions invested in us, helping and hoping for success in our businesses, attack us?
I am not promoting a complete lack of security, but clearly the government is going too far.

[B M Ryan]

Sorry, Lib 4 all, but while you roam the hallowed halls of accademia, you are shielded from the facts of the real world. The many good people of the world do not have access to the tools of destruction avalable to the few despots determined to destroy us and our way of life. The best way to avoid attack, is to be at least one step ahead of the perps. Gathering and interpretating intellegence has, and will, keep the wolf away from our door. And the way to preempt disaster, is to confront it before it becomes a reality on our shores, and in our cities and towns. 9/11 happened because we were too lax and complacent. We must never allow that to happen again. We keep and are expanding a great military force, but it is there only for retalliation. Being forewarned and alert will not only save the lives of Americans, who would be the first strike victims, but the lives of all those "US loving" innocents who would be lost by a counterattack by our military.

Take a peek over those ivy covered walls and do a little thinking and not parrot the pacifist drivel being taught in universities today.

[Ode]

B M,
Answer me this: Why was it so hard for the federal government to properly adhere to the rule of law and obtain warrants for their surveillance?

FISA Judges have met up in the middle of the night to issue proper warrants. And, it is clear in the law that the government has 3 days to obtain a warrant retroactively in the case of an emergency.

More so, telecommunication companies are well aware of their requirement to comply with requests for information, so long as the requester has the proper FISA warrant. Their assistance in setting up massive dragnets and trunks of domestic communications without any legal justification is illegal and they, as well as the government parties involved, should suffer legal ramifications.

[Noticer]

Mr. Fortsch, the reason that Newsday calls the surveillance program "rogue" is because elements of it violated existing law. It doesn't matter how you or anyone else personally feel about that. I personally don't believe that people should be thrown in prison for involvement with drugs, but - behold! The majority of the unfortunates cramming our prison system are there on nonviolent drug charges.

Of course, those people for the most part are not top-ranking government officials or the corporate telecommunications executives working with the goverment in arrangements that smell - to anyone with a real nose for it - a lot like facsism.

Oh and, the oversight provided by warrants? That's the whole issue. People who agree to trust the goverment to spy on the right people for the right reasons because they have "nothing to hide" are likely to wake up one day to find that what they have to hide is their political point of view.

Only then it will be too late.

[Noticer]

B M Ryan wrote:

Sorry, Lib 4 all, but while you roam the hallowed halls of accademia, you are shielded from the facts of the real world. The many good people of the world do not have access to the tools of destruction avalable to the few despots determined to destroy us and our way of life. The best way to avoid attack, is to be at least one step ahead of the perps. Gathering and interpretating intellegence has, and will, keep the wolf away from our door. And the way to preempt disaster, is to confront it before it becomes a reality on our shores, and in our cities and towns. 9/11 happened because we were too lax and complacent. We must never allow that to happen again. We keep and are expanding a great military force, but it is there only for retalliation. Being forewarned and alert will not only save the lives of Americans, who would be the first strike victims, but the lives of all those "US loving" innocents who would be lost by a counterattack by our military.
Take a peek over those ivy covered walls and do a little thinking and not parrot the pacifist drivel being taught in universities today.

Yeah - like in them damn pesky Constitutional law courses!

[Noticer]

Ode wrote:

B M,
Answer me this: Why was it so hard for the federal government to properly adhere to the rule of law and obtain warrants for their surveillance?
FISA Judges have met up in the middle of the night to issue proper warrants. And, it is clear in the law that the government has 3 days to obtain a warrant retroactively in the case of an emergency.
More so, telecommunication companies are well aware of their requirement to comply with requests for information, so long as the requester has the proper FISA warrant. Their assistance in setting up massive dragnets and trunks of domestic communications without any legal justification is illegal and they, as well as the government parties involved, should suffer legal ramifications.

Actually, they should all face criminal charges - but that isn't very likely to happen.

This question about why the government "couldn't" work within the existing legal procedures, which allowed warrants to be issued even 72 hours AFTER surveillance had begun, is an excellent one, and one that every American should ask themselves and demand answers to from the government itself.

In light of this, Bush - charactersistically - lied when he cited the "need for speed" as a reason to waive warrants. It's not that the government COULDN'T comply with the existing laws, is that they WOULDN'T. They deliberately and flagrantly violated them. There's a reason this was done, and it probably isn't a very good one for us.

[B M Ryan]

None of us out of the "need to know" is privy to the need of urgency of those hired to safeguard our country. I, personally, am glad that someone is watching the store. The fact that a country with the freedom to move about, although extremely vulnerable, has not been subject to a plethora of terrorist attacks, is witness to the success of stringent investigative proceedures.

[Ode]

BM,
"stringent investigative proceedures [sic]" are not mutually exclusive of warrants.

[LIBI out of touch]

Watt clearly has no real connection to Suffolk residnets who want open space preservation. Perhaps if LIBI stopped pretending to care about environmnetal issues and stopped back door funding opposition at every turn, together the problems of sustainable development and housing could have been solved decades ago. Same old Same old...sick of listening to fat cat developers whine!