But if this story is true, doesn't it bother you that these things are being done w/o a warrant? Whatever happened to the seperation of powers?
Who do you think that Uncle Sam is listening to?
Most likely people who follow the R.O.P.
The powers are separated just fine, this has always been a function of the NSA.
Hmmm ~ do you imagine that our courts have extraterritorial powers?
Extraordinary powers have always been granted presidents in war time. Abraham Lincoln even suspended habeas corpus during the civil war. That means the executive branch could arrest anyone and hold them without telling anyone the person had been arrested. Lincoln could and did order people picked up and held. To their family, friends and acquaintances they just disappeared. No one knew what happened to them. When their lawyers tried a writ of habeas corpus (do you have the body) the government refused to answer. They didn't answer in cases where they had the person under arrest and they refused to answer when they didn't have the person under arrest.
Many personal freedom were removed in WWI and WWII as well though never as many as Lincoln removed during the Civil War.
What happens to freedom? It is always taken away in war time and returned when the war is over.
Our freedoms are not absolute. Our government has always retained the right to remove our freedoms. The only real right we possess is the right to vote those whose actions we disapprove out of office.
If after the war, freedoms are not returned, we elect people who then give us back our freedom.
The people supposedly spied on all had connections to al quaeda. Apparently, several terrorist plots were disrupted, as well.