dagblog - Comments for "The NSA Read Your Emails and All You Got Was This Lousy Fake Terrorism Prosecution"

We've been watching for a

The Decider — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:17:25 +0000

In reply to because it makes us all

We've been watching for a long time now, you know?

God bless America!

--W

because it makes us all

Resistance — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 04:59:19 +0000

In reply to Basaaly Moalin is nothing

because it makes us all "safe".

Far from it; next thing you know;, anyone that shows sympathy or support for a B. Moalin will be charged with aiding and abetting the enemy? . I suppose you and I will now be monitored?

There's a fine line between

acanuck — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 22:52:18 +0000

In reply to The worst aspect is the sheer

There's a fine line between "probably up to no good" and "he needed killin'." Obviously, it's a line the people commanding the drones don't really worry about. When I used Anwar al-Awlaki's extrajudicial execution as an example, I wasn't aware of the more glaring case of his teenage grandson. So the Trayvon Martin comparison didn't come to mind:

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18064-up-to-no-good-the-racial-profili...

But it is totally valid. The reason the U.S. Constitution banned bills of attainder was that they had been used, during succession struggles back in England, by Catholics to demonize and marginalize Protestants, and by Protestants to do the same to Catholics. Membership in an identifiable group was arbitrarily deemed criminal. The Founding Fathers recognized profiling and denial of due process went hand in hand, and were determined to stamp both out. Nice try, guys.

Basaaly Moalin is nothing

Beetlejuice — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:06:42 +0000

In reply to The NSA Read Your Emails and All You Got Was This Lousy Fake Terrorism Prosecution

Basaaly Moalin is nothing more than a scapegoat being used to "show" the american public that NSA spying is worth the loss of individual freedoms becuase it makes us all "safe".

He's not an American and his actions were directed to some far and distant land and issues, so it's easy to fabricate a "what if" scenario that gullible people will swallow hook, line and sinker and feel at home with sacrificing our individual freedoms so we all can "feel' safe.

They can run algorithms on a

NCD — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 04:59:48 +0000

In reply to The worst aspect is the sheer

They can run algorithms on a quadrillion emails and phone numbers, and arrest a guy sending money to Somalia. They call that keeping us safe.

The government can't write a simple rule for parking and securing a train loaded with explosive petrochemicals on a hill. A hill that may have 50 happy Canucks at the bottom of it, folks who don't know their quaint little village is about to be blown off the map.

That's national security 9/11 style.

The worst aspect is the sheer

acanuck — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 23:51:03 +0000

In reply to The NSA Read Your Emails and All You Got Was This Lousy Fake Terrorism Prosecution

The worst aspect is the sheer arbitrariness. A terrorist or terrorist group is whoever the U.S. government designates a terrorist or terrorist group.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard were once just a branch of Iran's military. The U.S. got increasingly pissed off at Iran, so now they are officially terrorists. The world rightly deemed the anti-Iranian government group MEK terrorists. They hired some congressional lobbyists, and now they're simply dissidents -- at least in American eyes. A government shameless enough to formally pretend the military takeover in Egypt was not a coup is capable of any semantic bullshit.

President Obama is a constitutional scholar. I'm not, but even I know that the U.S. Constitution specifically bans bills of attainder. I'm sure Anwar al-Awlaki was a really nasty guy, but I'm also sure the bill of rights trumps the traditional Texas defense that "he needed killin'."

So far, U.S. legislators, White House, judiciary, media and most of the public seem to think otherwise, that this is all being done to "keep us safe." I think far too high a price is being paid, but I'm just some furriner. Carry on.