it's a story about the abuses of power and where the Patriot Act may lead us. I think I may have already told the story here of Canadian immigration asking me why I went to the library so much. It was not a good feeling, even though I knew my New Mexico tags were conspicuous in that little town in northern Ontario.
Dana On 5/26/05, Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >So what? Trying to get information about Osama bin Laden is hardly > >criminal and should not be the concern of the FBI. Researching someone > >does not mean you agree with him, or I would be a > >frothing-at-the-mouth fundamentalist republican. > > > >So YEAH the Patriot Act should go. Geez. I am astounded that this is > >even debated. They are STILL holding hearings on this. > >Dana > > I can't believe I'm about to tacitly defend the Patriot Act (someplace in > Hell an imp just learned about frost bite)... but here goes. > > To be fair, from the article, it didn't seem like they were after everyone > that "researched Bin Laden". They were given a very specific tip and were > following up on it. The concern seemed focused on the clearly inflammatory > writing in the margin, not on the readship of the book (or similar books) in > general. > > They didn't ask (again, per the artical) for names of lenders of ALL books > about Bin Laden - only that one specific book sent to them by a concerned > party. From the article (which may be leaving out hundreds of important, > opinion-swaying details) it didn't seem at all like a "fishing expedition". > > I am glad that the privacy of the lenders was protected in the end. But I'm > also sympathetic with the FBI. Imagine the public outcry had something > happened and they later admitted that they had such intelligence but did > nothing? > > They were given specific intelligence and attempted to follow up to the best > of their abilities. They clearly did not actually invoke the Patriot Act in > this case - they followed normal, pre-9/11 legal channels. > > This, to me, doesn't seem to be a story about the Patriot Act at all (since > it was never invoked). > > Jim Davis > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Purchase Flash MX Pro from House of Fusion, a Macromedia Authorized Affiliate and support the CF community. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=57 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:158829 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
