[Orion]

Think about it. At least our focus now is on a REAL enemy within...

The "enemy" within seems to be someone who:
May use more than one phone (roving wiretaps w/o judge signature)
Uses digital encryption technology to mask their internet communications (heard on ABC radio today that gov't wants backdoor keys to encryption software)
Has finances outside of high-tax nations (got to crack down on money laundering and financing of terrorism)

WTFO?

It sounds to me like Big Brother wants to know who I talk to, what I say, what I buy, and where I store my loot. Why can't we just focus on folks who fit the profile of a terrorist, and use some good, old fashioned police work and keep these beasts out of our country.

I remember when I was in college ('85-'89) and the Ag Dept found two cyanide laced grapes from Chile. They stopped all Chilaen grape imports. Now, if we can find two grapes, why can't we find 19 people who weigh about 150# a piece that want to harm us in very public ways?

The answer is because we lack the political will to do so. It is much easier to ask the citizens to give up freedom than risk being called "racist."

My advice: if the gov't wants to ban or regulate it, then stock up. Use phone cards, public phones, and digital cel phones. Stock up on PGP 7.0.3 by Network Associates. Later versions may be compromised. It is the .50BMG of digital encryption and is virtually uncrackable. Use cash as often as practical, don't give out your SSN unless it's to the bank, IRS, or your employer. As for offshore accounts...there is a whole other world out there, with better banks than those found in the USA.

[willyboyishere]

I can't disagree with anything you say in #74, but consider this: there is a residual antagonism borne of a new awareness among ever larger numbers of the American population that our own government is to some degree ALSO responsible for what happened on 9/11. Were our civil liberties to be infringed by what you see as the spectre of "Big Brother" there would be a hue and cry from us that this government couldn't even imagine. And also consider this: as much as our general law enforcement structure has failed us (FBI,CIA, etc.) , as misdirected and abusive as they've been, AT LEAST THEY'RE THERE, and organized, and ready to be set in a new and more essential direction. Think how much harder it would be for the sleeper-agent enemies within to be tracked and caught if we didn't have these agencies: they were temporarily re-configured and weakened and given new marching orders all during the Clinton years, and have a tremendous amount of catching up to do (which is why everything still seems to be moving so slowly through the bureaucratic muck) but they are being given a highly specific focus now, something REAL to work on.