Keep in mind that the new law's definition of "domestic terrorism" is so broad, as we shall see in future columns, that entirely innocent people can be swept into this surveillance dragnet. You are not immune.
As law professor and privacy expert Jeffrey Rosen points out in the October 15 New Republic, "If [unbeknownst to you] your colleague is a target of [the already in-place] Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Investigation [with its very low privacy standards], the government could tap all your [own] communications on a shared phone, work computer, or public library terminal."
Furthermore, all this vast "intelligence" data can now be shared with the CIA, which is again allowed—despite its charter forbidding it to engage in internal security functions—to spy again on Americans in this country, and without a court order. People of a certain age may remember when the CIA did spy here on law-abiding dissenters, mostly on the left, in total contempt of the Constitution.
Nat Hentoff is a disgusting filthy lover of palistine. He's no friend of civilization and no friend of the war on terrorism. Is this where you get your ideas from? No wonder you're a Sarah Brady sycophant. This comes from the PRE 9/11 writings of this traitor to america:
Palestinians have legitimate grievances. Both in Israel and the United States, I have interviewed Palestinians who have detailed severe abuses by Israeli authorities -- not only the torture of prisoners but also collective punishment by the Israeli government, destroying homes and evicting families. For years I have supported the Peace Now movement by Israelis, and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. In these months of mutual acts of violence, however, there has been a distinct difference in the reactions of many -- not all -- Palestinians to the loss of lives, as contrasted with the attitudes of most Israelis.