Without Civil Liberties Homeland Security Will Fail

(Reposting in it's own thread)

Without Civil Liberties Homeland Security Will Fail

Source: University of Maryland, College Park Released: Fri 23-Dec-2005, 14:20 ET

Without Civil Liberties Homeland Security Will Fail
By Lee Strickland

When the government’s war on terror forgets our civil liberties, it does so at our peril, weakening our homeland security.

Consider the latest and unnecessary example: the directives allowing the National Security Agency to intercept the telephone and Internet communications of Americans without a court warrant. The day the news broke, the Senate blocked renewal of the USA Patriot Act – a law the president says is essential to our security. Its long-term status remains in question. There’s a pattern here.


snip...

This is not the first time since 9/11 that a disregard for civil liberties has generated congressional and citizen opposition to other security programs. CAPS II – a plan to enhance airline security by prescreening passengers’ records – was terminated because civil liberties concerns by the public and Congress were not satisfied. Admiral Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness Program – a Department of Defense initiative to create an extensive, coordinated database – suffered a similar fate.

The lesson is that logical security steps will fail if the public does not have faith that they will be run in a way that respects our core values and constitutional protections. The irony in this latest case is that the warrantless intercepts are truly unwarranted.

snip...

Instead we now have a very dangerous precedent. Something extreme is afoot that eats away at the Constitution’s fundamental precept of a balance of powers between the three branches of government.

When the executive branch asserts a unilateral authority to act without transparency, without oversight and without the opportunity for redress, the real threat to our society becomes apparent as it did in the 1960s and early ‘70s. This is as pernicious as anything Richard Nixon did.




Lee S. Strickland recently retired from the CIA after 30 years as an attorney, senior analyst and manger. He now directs the University of Maryland’s Center for Information Policy.


http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/516997/?sc=rsln

:kick: :hi: :applause: