The Bull Moose (via The Corner) comments:
Once again the battle lines are drawn on another controversy over liberty vs. security in the war against terrorism. Cries of Big Brother and fascism are being heard.
It is time for some reasoned clarity.
This is not a program intended to deprive us of our liberty, but rather one that attempts to employ twenty-first century technology to stop seventh century theocratic killer fascists. Here is the key point in the USA Today story,
"The government is collecting "external" data on domestic phone calls but is not intercepting "internals," a term for the actual content of the communication, according to a U.S. intelligence official familiar with the program. This kind of data collection from phone companies is not uncommon; it's been done before, though never on this large a scale, the official said."
As of yet, there is no evidence that the government was eavesdropping on private conversations of innocent citizens. What we know is that it is a collection of phone numbers that were put into super computers to detect patterns of suspect activity. The Bushies were not using information to destroy their political opponents. The NSA is legitimately obtaining data to thwart terrorists.
It is very sad that reasonable attempts to protect our people while we win the war are taken by administration opponents as unreasonable civil rights violations. And bizarre, too. But really, reactions like this stem from the simple fact that many on the Left simply don't believe in their hearts that we are at war.
And as I've said before, those truly concerned about civil rights in this country should be the most vocal in demanding we go on the offensive to identify--and then defeat--our enemies.
