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Eavesdropping Helpful Against Terrorist Plot [UPDATED]
AcidPenguin9873 writes "The New York Times reports that the U.S. government's ability to eavesdrop on personal communications helped break up a terrorist plot in Germany. The intercepted phone calls and emails revealed a connection between the plotters and a breakaway cell of the terrorist group Islamic Jihad Union. What does this mean for the future of privacy in personal communications? From the article: '[Director of national intelligence Mike McConnell's] remarks also represent part of intensifying effort by Bush administration officials to make permanent a law that is scheduled to expire in about five months. Without the law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Mr. McConnell said the nation would lose "50 percent of our ability to track, understand and know about these terrorists, what they're doing to train, what they're doing to recruit and what they're doing to try to get into this country.'" Update: 09/13 12:59 GMT by J : See followup story.
Benjamin Franklin didn't hang around Muslim extremists. He didn't have his country hijacked by a regime that would kill his wife for showing too much ankle. Certainly you don't believe that all quotes of the past are applicable in modern times. If we want to figure out how to handle these blood seeking radicals, I don't think Ben is the best man for the job.
Hows is this news? OMFG! NSA taps bad guy.
Oh...right...ye I guess that is quite newsworthy. At least the US government seem to think so, as they've rolled out their Director of National Intelligence (no less) to tell everyone about it. Am I the only one who finds that a little disturbing?
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
Who the f*ck mods this crap:
Under Bush, the terrorists have won everything, because Bush is a terrorist. Even in Germany, people aren't safe from Bush's terrorism. Bush is indeed the greatest terrorist of them all. By any measure, including by body count (the way terrorists terrorize) and by how much liberty he's destroyed.. . . +1 Insightful?
It's not "insightful" boys and girls - it's stupid beyond belief. If we were REALLY living in the police state OP describes, the OP would have been locked-up, disappeared, or dragged out into the street and executed a long, long time ago. Just take a look at his comment history - he's been at this for a while.
But here he is - insulting the "greatest terrorist of them all" - and he'll be back tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.
You know how I know America is the greatest nation in Man's short history? Because America tolerates morons like DocRuby - and the idiots who mod him "+1 Insightful"
What?