[IP] more on Who they're spying on
Begin forwarded message:
From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-19-0501@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 7, 2006 5:06:13 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: "'Hiawatha Bray'" <h_bray@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [IP] Who they're spying on
I’m backlogged so haven’t posted this on SATN yet – I wrote this in
response to a Jacoby’s column in the Globe asking why the ACLU is
complaining.
Perhaps the big problem is that some fishing may be important and we
might have to be flexible. But that makes it even more important to
assure that we can trust those who have extraordinary rights. How can
I feel safe with an administration that has a moralistic agenda that
seems to go well beyond any narrow goal of looking for terrorists? An
administration that operates in deep paranoid secrecy while seeing
all others who want some freedom as suspects?
How can an administration that doesn’t believe in evolution be
trusted with understanding that Sherlock Holmes was story and that
the kind of logic used in those books is simply and utterly wrong –
you don't eliminate all possibilities and know the one answer, you
don't follow a whispering chain to many many levels and assume the
results are valid. Same for Star Wars – you don’t close your eyes and
mind and rely on The Force being with you.
When the government agents walk into libraries and demand to know
what is being read and by whom and demand no one know about the visit
– how do you know what agenda they have? Even if we don't have cops
being outright criminals (as in the news lately and in the Bulger
debacle) naïve theories can do grave damage while making people
afraid to appear on the wrong lists.
Is there any reason to assume the administration is not looking at
who called Kerry?
Who should we be afraid of? Terrorists who might destroy buildings or
those who seek to destroy our freedom with the terrorists as excuses
Should we trust an administration to protect our children when they
would rather use children as an excuse to shut down the Internet and
use simplistic testing to penalize thoughts that aren’t easily
measured and contained?
It’s no surprise that we have “proof by example”. That’s the method
that was in use before the renaissance when we shifted to the
scientific method of testing ideas instead of accumulating
misunderstandings.
How many of those we should worry about go unnoticed because they
have learned to hide in plain site? How many of those arrested have
gotten convicted? How many learn to fear our government’s actions and
feel oppressed and attacked? What do desperate people do?
It’s easy to create fear and give in to it– it’s harder to rise above
it. That takes courage and maybe that’s too much to expect.
+ + + + + + +
Responding to “Phone-record hysteria at the ACLU” http://
www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/28/
phone_record_hysteria_at_the_aclu/
I understand the apparent value in fishing through all of the phone
records. I say apparent since without knowing the content of the
conversations one must do more than just connect the dots. The
records would not show all the conversations that take place outside
the classic phone system – be their in person or over the Internet as
with email or Skype. It’s too easy to see patterns that aren’t there
and miss those that are. At very least moral certainty is not
compatible with dealing with the ambiguities.
The real problem, however, is that the administration has not shown
the restraint necessary to be trusted with unlimited access to such
information. This is an administration that has doesn’t distinguish
between terrorism and other activities that meet its disapproval. It
uses cover stories like a campaign against child pornography and
abortion to demand that all of our meanderings be recorded and reported.
Given that this administration views the oversight of the courts and
the restrictions imposed by Congress with disdain we have every
reason to be afraid of those who seek to track our lives and impose
their rigid morality on us all.
We should be prepared for disruptions be they from terrorism or other
disasters. Cynically pandering to our fears and tightly monitoring
all activities will leaves us less capable of responding to events
and unable to move beyond the seeing the future as more of the past.
One needn’t be an anti-bush partisan to fear fear itself.
Bob Frankston
http://www.frankston.com
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 11:54
To: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [IP] Who they're spying on
Begin forwarded message:
From: h_bray@xxxxxxxxx
Date: June 7, 2006 11:11:09 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Who they're spying on
In all the fuss about the NSA spying issue, it's sometimes forgotten
that
there are real bad guys out there, who badly need to be spied on.
Here's a
story that makes the point, from today's London Times.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2214663,00.html
British computer whiz-kid exports
terror via internet
By Daniel McGrory
An e-mail trail has led to the arrest
of suspects across the world who were
recruited and then schooled in
bombmaking
AN INTERNET trail left by a British
computer expert has led investigators
to an intricate terror network
spreading from the backstreets of
Baghdad through cells of young
militants living in European capitals
to Islamic extremists plotting
car-bomb attacks in North America.
For nine months police and
intelligence agents in eight countries
have patiently worked through a forest
of e-mails and intercepted telephone
calls that have so far led to the
arrest of up to 30 men.
Most of these suspects have never met.
They had no need. They were recruited,
groomed by skilled propagandists and
schooled in bombmaking via the
internet.
A senior security source told The
Times that there is a far greater
number of terror networks operating in
Britain than had been thought, all
using the internet to plot attacks
here and abroad.
Hiawatha Bray
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