Living In September 10 America :: War on Terror

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December 22, 2005

Living In September 10 America

"How could an American citizen who chooses to call, or accept calls from, an al Qaeda operative overseas reasonably expect that those conversations would not be monitored by American or other authorities?"

That's a great question, and if you're not calling a terrorist or receiving calls from a terrorist, and you're not a terrorist yourself, you have nothing to worry about (the NSA is plenty busy trying to keep track of the terrorists and their collaborators, they don't want to waste their time on those of us who are not so inclined) - the NSA hasn't even the slightest interest in wasting their time on your calls.

Our spy agencies have limited resources with a huge number of whacko Islamofascists to try and keep up with. In a post September 11 world, with Islamists hell bent on destroying Western civilization as we know it, and forcing everyone to worship "Allah" as the Islamists do and live under Islamic law and in submission to Islam, or die, to even concern ourselves with such a ridiculous matter is positively crazy.

But it now appears that thanks to the Democratic Left, "We are once again living in September 10 America."

The signs are all around us: Congress's acting to neuter interrogations of terrorist detainees; the Senate's filibustering the reauthorization of the most important piece of counterterrorism legislation since 9/11, the Patriot Act (Sen. John Sununu, who supports the filibuster, responds to our Friday editorial here); and now the controversy over National Security Agency intercepts of conversations between persons in the United States and suspected al Qaeda operatives overseas.

As is pointed out in yesterday's NRO editorial, "While there is much yet to be learned about the NSA program, it seems very likely that no laws were broken and that President Bush was acting responsibly in a context where we are fighting a fast-moving, loosely organized enemy that uses the wonders of modern communications technology to aid its mass murder.

Why is it that the Democratic leadership just can't seem to understand that?

Posted by Richard at December 22, 2005 9:01 AM

The NSA has been intercepting international calls for years based on computer programs that listen for key words like bomb, money, drugs, etc. I believe that the project is called CARNIVORE. But to say that you have nothing to fear if you are not a terrorist was an arguement used by the NAZI's before world war II, and by Stalin in the Soviet Union. You cannot preserve freedom by giving it up.

Posted by: Chuck Dewey at December 22, 2005 10:26 AM

Chuck,
You have a very good point about "not preserve freedom by giving it up," but that's not the issue in the context of our post 9/11 world. If we don't stop the Islamists now, those freedoms won't be worth a plugged nickel under sharia law. Foregoing a little privacy in the near term can and will make a huge difference in whether or not the word freedom drops from the vocabulary of Western civilization.

To think otherwise, is being a wee bit naive.

This war is very real, very dangerous, and it's only just begun. Let's work hard, all together, to make sure that the freedoms you speak of are indeed kept in place, but that we juxtapose them with rational preventive measures that may indeed include near-term measures that makes some people a little nervous.

By the way, death, from terrorism, is a different kind of freedom, and one that most would rather prevent.

Posted by: Richard at December 22, 2005 10:43 AM

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