Mend, don't end plan to gather terror data, think tank urges

Washington Times ^ | Friday, August 8, 2003 | By Audrey Hudson

[JohnHuang2]

Congress should regulate terrorist-identifying technology being developed by the Pentagon's Terrorism Information Awareness program, rather than scrap the entire effort for fear of violating Americans' civil liberties, according to a paper published yesterday by the Heritage Foundation.

The "discovery technology" has the potential to be a valuable tool in the war on terrorism, said the conservative think tank's policy paper.

[JohnHuang2]

Friday, August 8, 2003

Quote of the Day by genghis

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[eno_]

IF the fedgov had a good track record of punishing FBI abuses I might buy in to this line of reasoning.

But plainly they DON'T have a good track record. So I say no to funding TIA.

[zeugma]

Absolutely. It is obvious to me that Fedgov has no ability to police itself. Congress needs to keep a close watch on this because of the history these fellows have of finding ways to implment what they want regardless of congress' clear directions.

The Fibbies and other domestic survellance agencies have profited enough from 9/11. It is time to put a brake on it.

[reelfoot]

Am I missing something here, or are we not debating whether to give the Feds sweeping new authority to spy on its citizens when the debate should be how soon we end the insane immigration policy we have? Where is it enshrined in stone that we have to accept hordes of people from the Middle East, or anywhere else? We cannot continue to absorb endless numbers of people from the Third World, a great many of whom come here to commit murder and mayhem. There would be no excuse to have this sweeping proposal for our central government to spy on its own citizens if we didn't allow huge numbers of foreign citizens to come here in the first place. Rather than abridge the rights of Americans, we must deport suspected terrorists (and their fellow travelers) and prevent more terrorists from coming to this country. Let's return to some sane pre-LBJ immigration policy at once.

[steve-b]

Other safeguards that could be applied include internal policy controls and training, executive branch administrative oversight, and civil and criminal penalties for abuse. Congress should also pass a law prohibiting the technology to be used for non-terrorism investigations, the paper said.

When Bill and Hill are behind bars for the FBI Files scandal, then talk to me about the possibility of trusting that abuses can be prevented by "safeguards" and "oversight".

[eno_]

Yes! Border security first!

The Israelis successfully contained terror attacks from a hornet's nest of terrorists in Gaza by controlling that border. Border security can be effective.

Maybe HSA should print up tee shirts: "Freedom Lite, it's almost worth defending."