[I thank Stu for responding with his usual clarity of purpose. A brief response: Friends of liberty should not be ashamed to say that important rights must not be abridged, period. (If we hold that is unacceptable for police to, for example, torture citizens, should we reevaluate that position in light of "new data?") As for wiretaps, there are good reasons to require strict judicial oversight and careful scrutiny of surveillance, and those reasons do not simply disappear because of the tragic Sep. 11 attacks. The Supreme Court got it right in 1967 when saying that "few threats to liberty exist which are greater than those posed by the use of eavesdropping devices." As awful as the Sep. 11 attacks were, they do not mean we should simply ignore the Fourth Amendment and the rest of the U.S. Constitution. Now is the time to follow it most rigorously. --Declan]
********* From: "Baker, Stewart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: "Albertazzie, Sally" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: FBI requires ISPs to permit easy surveillance; EFF founder ag rees Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 14:52:52 -0400 Declan, I guess I ought to know what Mitch said and didn't say at this event. In fact, I took Mitch's remarks as an olive branch and an invitation to more civil discourse now that we have a keener sense of how much unites rather than divides us. He didn't say he was willing to abandon principle for expediency. He did say that he defines himself as many things, and civil liberties advocate is (just) one of them. He also said he is open to reconsidering his views in the aftermath of September 11. Well, who isn't? Only an ideologue would refuse to reconsider his views in the light of new data (or would accuse those who do of abandoning principles for expediency). But in fact, Mitch held up the civil liberties end of the discussion with dignity and moderation, offering a determined argument against national id cards, for example. Stewart Baker ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
