« More media whoring | Main | 'I'm outraged.' »

December 18, 2005

GOOD GOD! Same sanity on 'spying'

From Jeff Harrell using fiction writer John Varley to make a point

In his fictional settings, people live in environments where they subject themselves to the constant watchful eye of various pieces of automation for their convenience and safety. If one of his characters wants a cheeseburger, all he has to do is speak the desire aloud; the household automation is always listening. And if someone collapses, the house will call for medical help automatically because it was paying attention the whole time. [...]

That’s where we are, too, more or less. We accept certain forms of surveillance without a second thought because they make our lives better: security cameras at banks and hospitals, discreet searches and even pat-downs at airports, “Your call may be monitored for quality-control purposes.” If I knew that the NSA were listening in on every international phone call I made but that the government was enjoined from using anything they discovered against me unless they had followed the rules of evidence, would I object? Not a bit. And while I understand the point of view of those who do — an offense to principle isn’t a hard thing to relate to — I think they would benefit from a healthy dose of oh-quit-being-so-stuck-up.

Thank you, Jeff!

Let me add something from my perspective as someone who works in the judicial arena. In those law enforcement agencies that pay particular attention to gangs, information gathering is intense. They track graffitii, cultivate informers, surveillance as unobtrusive as possible, record and review phone calls out of the jail, etc. And this may end up involving people who are NOT gangbangers but who are associated with them, casually or through family. Is this something to be worried about from "civil rights" principle? For some. But let's consider the alternatives. There's a tactic some gangs like to use, and that's putting a sympathic but "clean" person into the judicial system -- employment at the court clerk's office, unsworn employee in the jail system -- that gang leaders can tap for information on their enemies, witnesses against them, etc. Surveillance helps ferret these people out before they can do much damage.

At paragraph #11 of the NYTimes piece we find

Several officials said the eavesdropping program had helped uncover a plot by Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker and naturalized citizen who pleaded guilty in 2003 to supporting Al Qaeda by planning to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches. What appeared to be another Qaeda plot, involving fertilizer bomb attacks on British pubs and train stations, was exposed last year in part through the program, the officials said.
The blame-mongering post 9/11 was that the Bush Administration didn't "connect the dots." Today's faux-outrage over a carefully crafted program to be as nimble as possible and within understood legal parameters to is deny any future dots to be discovered.

What do you want, people?

Posted by Darleen at December 18, 2005 12:53 PM

Comments

They want us to give up and lose, Darleen.

Posted by: Robert at December 18, 2005 03:06 PM

You said it, Robert!

Posted by: TalkinKamel at December 18, 2005 06:30 PM