Selective Criticism

This past week’s revelation of the practice of the NSA listening in on phone conversations has yielded much criticism. Those who are most appalled by this practice are shouting at the top of their lungs that the government is invading the citizens’ rights to privacy.

May I remind you all that the word privacy does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. May I also point out, that the documented uses of this power since 2001 are fewer than 40. And in those cases the secret monitoring occurred during overseas calls made by suspected terrorists to areas of the world where other terrorists are known to have been located. And Congressional leaders have had oversight over the practice. Let’s not forget that this has been done with as little impact on the American public as possible.

I’d also remind those who have been criticizing that during the Clinton Administration the NSA was affectionately known as No Such Agency. The US government has only recently acknowledged that the National Security Agency actually exists.

Throughout our nation’s history, there have been many suspensions of the personal liberties of the American people in the context of national security. I would suggest that those who have done the most invading of the civil rights of the American people have been Democrat. Including Mr Clinton.

I would suggest reading Lee Penn’s When The State Becomes God. Then I would like to hear if they still believe what has taken place is an invasion of OUR rights or a matter of national security.

h/t loboinok

Comments are closed.