[pissant]

I only support the direct call scenario and cases like the post Osama call. The rest should be done through the more traditional methods if they want to follow up on further removed persons.

So to answer your question, if it is demonstrated that the 4 steps removed system is being used on US CITIZENS, then I would want it curtailed. That is too random to be legal.

But they claimed that only about 5000 people have been subject to this. So I'd be quite suprised if more than a handful of 4 steppers were being monitored.

[lugsoul]

IF the 5000 number is accurate, or true, our difference on this issue may end up being the scariest of all. I think that 5000 MUST include the kind of 4-step-removed folks discussed above. Because otherwise, if (as you seem to think) it does not, then there are AT LEAST 5000 people in this country having direct communications with terrorists trying to attack us, or at least with suspicious patterns connecting their commications to these people. 5000 is a lot of people. More than the number of 'hard-core insurgents' in Afghanistan.

[lugsoul]

It took a long way to get here, but this is why, IMHO, some conservatives are angry about this program and some aren't. Some simply don't believe that it is limited to those who call terrorists or are called by them. Or people of similar proximity. Some do believe it.

I don't believe it. For a second. It is contrary to the very nature of government to be self-constrained.