SECURITY v INVASION OF PRIVACY & CESSATION OF RIGHTS?

[HARDCORE]

Quote a former member of government itself: ?THE POWER OF SURVEILLANCE HAS BEEN GROSSLY ABUSED!?

Now some may argue that a few rights have to be surrendered so that others may be secured during trying times, and in a way, there is a bit of logic to this analogy. But who (if anyone) draws the line on how far any entity is allowed to go before this invasion of privacy plunges us back into the dark ages of Europe during the late 1930s?

?I just watched a program that re-ignited a train of thought that has plagued me ever since a call that I made some years ago to one of intelligence agency in D.C. Area??

At the time, I was working on an informative article for a small local paper and I had a question about a sign that was reported to hang over the entranceway of that agency, and why (in my opinion), that agency did not always adhere to the mandate stated upon that obvious and straight forward sign?

The person who answer the phone in DC (back then) could have been far more polite, but instead, the arrogant ass snapped at me and told me, and I quote: ?Why don?t you call someone who gives a damn!?

After a great deal of thought concerning this rude telephone call, I came to the conclusion that manners and class were not always a pre-requisite for some positions of power? It was also my view that with this crass babe?s attitude, she would have been far more suited to working for "Old J. Edgar" back in the FBI of thirties, instead of any Twentieth Century, highly polished Intel-Agency!

Now I am not saying that hard times do not sometimes require harsh measures? Lord knows, one has to fight fire with fire! "But since when have our law-abiding citizens themselves become the enemies of the state?"

After all is said and done. paranoia, is a trait best left in the mind of creative geniuses like Eric Blair (aka- George Orwell of 1984 fame), and not an affliction that is nurtured and promoted by governments! There is, after all (at least in my opinion), a fine (though dramatic) line that separates common sense from the unlawful abolition of human rights! "And even great men like Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, once saw the inherent danger of overstepping that monumental barrier!

Hell, even the old ?Federal Communications Act? defined wiretaps as illegal, but this (none the less) did not stop their use by some who deemed themselves above the laws that control the common man! ?I guess that some laws only apply to some people after all?? Ah, the blessings of equal rights and justice!

As a matter of fact, even back in 1916 (I believe?), a major N.Y. Newspaper said that, and again I quote: ?The trouble was that there were not enough wiretaps!?

It must also be noted that one of our nation?s best known and loved Presidents (FDR) gave the FBI the power to spy within our own borders. Of course, it was a time when such expanded powers were a necessity, considering the troublesome state of the world back then! It is rare indeed, however, to see any governmental agency cede back even a small portion of a (so-called) temporarily granted power - ?The Federal Income Tax being a splendid example of this scenario, again in my most humble opinion!"

And again, the reasons that some rights have been lessoned, at least according to a few of the Powers That Be, is to allow enforcement to attack certain evils on their own turf. But again, even when those evils are eliminated, the people often play Hell getting back any rights that were temporarily (?) surrendered! (opinion)

Wire taping, surveillance, harassment, intimidation and other questionable tools of the few who are irreversibly power-mad, may have their place! But again, when these instruments of intelligence are turned inward and their use expanded to cover even benign situations, then we have regressed (be it ever so slightly) back into the dark ages of mentality, and the danger of the resurrection of yet another Reich (somewhere on Earth) may again become a dire and ever-present possibility? (opinion)

"And for the record, what in the Hell did the surreptitious and uninformed use of non-volunteers in military and Intel - Experimentation Programs have to do with our national security?"
(Just a question?) :cd:


VERITAS INFINITUM