Posted on 09/18/2007 9:21:28 AM PDT by Lucky9teen
(2007-09-18) — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today raised the specter of a new wave of civil rights abuses by the U.S. intelligence community, which the ACLU accused of eavesdropping on the private communications of Chinese and Russian spies.
The charge comes after national intelligence director Mike McConnell revealed that espionage activity by China and Russia against the U.S. has returned to Cold War levels.
“The Bush administration knows that these foreign nations are spying more,” said an unnamed ACLU spokesman, “because the U.S. has been listening in on phone calls, intercepting emails and secretly videotaping the activities of individuals from these friendly foreign countries.”
Of course, any allegation of eavesdropping by the U.S. government on citizens, foreign or domestic, raises concerns about civil rights. In this case, the ACLU contends, “the consequences could be devastating, because the people whose privacy has been invaded depend on absolute secrecy for their living.”
“We’re talking about people losing their jobs,” the source said, “all because of a few zealous neo-cons in the Bush administration don’t know where to draw the line between legitimate national security concerns and the rights of Chinese and Russian persons to be free from U.S. government intrusion in their lives.”
We don't ever need to ask which side the ACLU is on, do we?
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