Posted on 07/04/2003 10:14:58 PM PDT by Commie Basher
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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
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For release: July 4, 2003
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For additional information:
George Getz, Communications Director
Phone: (202) 333-0008
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Color-coded terror alert system is useless and should be scrapped, Libertarians say.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The national color-coded terror alert system should be scrapped, Libertarians say, because it only alarms the public with warnings that are too vague to be useful.
"Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge risks becoming like the boy who cried wolf with his frequent, unsubstantiated orange alerts," said George Getz, Libertarian Party communications director. "Soon the public might start ignoring him -- and that could be a real disaster."
As the Fourth of July weekend approached, Department of Homeland Security officials declined to say whether they planned to raise the terror alert level from yellow to orange, the second-highest category. Since the system was instituted last fall, the threat has been raised to orange four times, and no attacks have taken place -- raising questions about the reliability of the underlying intelligence data.
One example: In February, Americans stockpiled food and water and rushed out to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal their homes after the government warned about the risk of a chemical or biological attack.
At the time, Ridge claimed the intelligence reports were based on "multiple sources, obviously credible and corroborated." But days later he quietly canceled the alert after being forced to admit that the reports were "not as accurate as we thought."
An unreliable terror alert system may be worse than none at all -- which is why the program should be dismantled, Libertarians say.
"Telling a nation still reeling from the September 11 terrorist attacks to be on alert for another horrific attack -- without telling them when, where, or how it might occur -- is nothing more than scaremongering," Getz said. "In fact, every orange alert that is issued based on flimsy evidence actually endangers the nation by making Americans more likely to ignore future warnings."
The federal system also forces local police departments to squander tax money on unnecessary security precautions, he added.
"The U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates that cities spent $2.6 billion on additional security costs since the September 11 attacks, much of it related to 'code orange' overtime costs for police and other emergency personnel," Getz said. "These warnings actually made America less safe, because every dollar spent on imaginary threats is a dollar that can't be spent arresting an actual murderer, robber or rapist."
The solution is to replace the gimmicky color-coded system with one based on law enforcement needs rather than political posturing, he said.
"If the federal government obtains a specific, credible threat, it should share it immediately with local law enforcement officials and let them take the appropriate steps to warn and protect the public," he said. "But in the absence of solid information, it should cut the political chatter and refrain from alarming 280 million Americans with a vague, generalized terror alert."
Libertarians believe that preventing another terrorist attack is one of the most important functions of the federal government -- and that's why Americans should insist that it's done right, he said.
"This Fourth of July, let's declare our independence from unnecessary fear by pulling the plug on this counterproductive terror-alert system," he said.
No one will have any luck with this person, or his ilk. You take care too. :-)
This one's for all the DUmmies out here today. You don't have to look any further than the creation of the TSA to see what Freedom's have been lost. Being searched without a warrant by a Federal Agent is in direct violation of the 4th Amd. The 4th has been trashed by the unPatriot Act, and you bushbot's revel in it. This straw man question you Libertarian bashers bring up everytime a thread like this get's posted is easily defeated. It's obvious to anyone who cares to open their eye's, where we're headed. DUmmies don't care, shrub's not getting BJ's, and that's all that matters, right! CWOJackson, I only addressed this to you because I see you still have plenty of insulting trash flowing from your keyboard. Hope you all enjoyed your faux Independence day, with your State sponsered fireworks show's, at your State sanctioned event's. Now that's FREEDOM! Blackbird.
Quit whining. You aren't a victim.
Looks like the Bill Of Rights, especially the 4th Amendment, takes a beating from the "patriot act", but in your defense, the Constitution hasn't really meant much for a long time now (can't lose what you didn't have in the first place).
...chief concerns with the USAPA include:
Expanded Surveillance With Reduced Checks and Balances. USAPA expands all four traditional tools of surveillance -- wiretaps, search warrants, pen/trap orders and subpoenas. Their counterparts under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that allow spying in the U.S. by foreign intelligence agencies have similarly been expanded. This means:
Be careful what you put in that Google search. The government may now spy on web surfing of innocent Americans, including terms entered into search engines, by merely telling a judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying could lead to information that is "relevant" to an ongoing criminal investigation. The person spied on does not have to be the target of the investigation. This application must be granted and the government is not obligated to report to the court or tell the person spied upon what it has done.
Nationwide roving wiretaps. FBI and CIA can now go from phone to phone, computer to computer without demonstrating that each is even being used by a suspect or target of an order. The government may now serve a single wiretap, FISA wiretap or pen/trap order on any person or entity nationwide, regardless of whether that person or entity is named in the order. The government need not make any showing to a court that the particular information or communication to be acquired is relevant to a criminal investigation. In the pen/trap or FISA situations, they do not even have to report where they served the order or what information they received. The EFF believes that the opportunities for abuse of these broad new powers are immense. For pen/trap orders, ISPs or others who are not named in the do have authority under the law to request certification from the Attorney General's office that the order applies to them, but they do not have the authority to request such confirmation from a court.
ISPs hand over more user information. The law makes two changes to increase how much information the government may obtain about users from their ISPs or others who handle or store their online communications. First it allows ISPs to voluntarily hand over all "non-content" information to law enforcement with no need for any court order or subpoena. sec. 212. Second, it expands the records that the government may seek with a simple subpoena (no court review required) to include records of session times and durations, temporarily assigned network (I.P.) addresses; means and source of payments, including credit card or bank account numbers. secs. 210, 211.
New definitions of terrorism expand scope of surveillance. One new definition of terrorism and three expansions of previous terms also expand the scope of surveillance. They are 1) § 802 definition of "domestic terrorism" (amending 18 USC §2331), which raises concerns about legitimate protest activity resulting in conviction on terrorism charges, especially if violence erupts; adds to 3 existing definition of terrorism (int'l terrorism per 18 USC §2331, terrorism transcending national borders per 18 USC §2332b, and federal terrorism per amended 18 USC §2332b(g)(5)(B)). These new definitions also expose more people to surveillance (and potential "harboring" and "material support" liability, §§ 803, 805).
Overbreadth with a lack of focus on terrorism. Several provisions of the USAPA have no apparent connection to preventing terrorism. These include: Government spying on suspected computer trespassers with no need for court order. Sec. 217.
Adding samples to DNA database for those convicted of "any crime of violence." Sec. 503. The provision adds collection of DNA for terrorists, but then inexplicably also adds collection for the broad, non-terrorist category of "any crime of violence."
Wiretaps now allowed for suspected violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This includes anyone suspected of "exceeding the authority" of a computer used in interstate commerce, causing over $5000 worth of combined damage.
Dramatic increases to the scope and penalties of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This includes: 1) raising the maximum penalty for violations to 10 years (from 5) for a first offense and 20 years (from 10) for a second offense; 2) ensuring that violators only need to intend to cause damage generally, not intend to cause damage or other specified harm over the $5,000 statutory damage threshold; 3) allows aggregation of damages to different computers over a year to reach the $5,000 threshold; 4) enhance punishment for violations involving any (not just $5,000) damage to a government computer involved in criminal justice or the military; 5) include damage to foreign computers involved in US interstate commerce; 6) include state law offenses as priors for sentencing; 7) expand definition of loss to expressly include time spent investigating, responding, for damage assessment and for restoration.
Allows Americans to be More Easily Spied Upon by US Foreign Intelligence Agencies. Just as the domestic law enforcement surveillance powers have expanded, the corollary powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act have also been greatly expanded, including:
General Expansion of FISA Authority. FISA authority to spy on Americans or foreign persons in the US (and those who communicate with them) increased from situations where the suspicion that the person is the agent of a foreign government is "the" purpose of the surveillance to anytime that this is "a significant purpose" of the surveillance.
Increased information sharing between domestic law enforcement and intelligence. This is a partial repeal of the wall put up in the 1970s after the discovery that the FBI and CIA had been conducting investigations on over half a million Americans during the McCarthy era and afterwards, including the pervasive surveillance of Martin Luther King in the 1960s. It allows wiretap results and grand jury information and other information collected in a criminal case to be disclosed to the intelligence agencies when the information constitutes foreign intelligence or foreign intelligence information, the latter being a broad new category created by this law.
FISA detour around federal domestic surveillance limitations; domestic detour around FISA limitations. Domestic surveillance limits can be skirted by the Attorney General, for instance, by obtaining a FISA wiretap against a US person where "probable cause" does not exist, but when the person is suspected to be an agent of a foreign government. The information can then be shared with the FBI. The reverse is also true.
If I were FBI, I'd monitor your computing, break down your door and throw you in jail forever.
Just to prove you were right about that darn Patriot Act.
It's The Blue Guy!
It's a cheezy, worthless little Orwellian scheme to keep the sheeple scared enough to not vote against our "wartime President" next year.
The President whom is kicking your dismal butt up and down and all over the world and ain't saying sorry. You think of him all the time. He never thinks of you. You follow his activities. He's leaving you unsolved.
Bush always wins. You always lose.
Him? Win. You? Lose.
No, she didn't. She adopted and favorably reported the glowing and glittery praise of the act's chief writer itself as if that praise were a dispassionate discussion of the act. In that sense, Malkin's article was misleading and one-sided. Of course the author of the act thinks the act is the best thing since sliced bread (just as the mother who gives birth to a child sees no blemishes and flaws in her child). This bias must be kept in mind when considering whether the praise is warranted.
The Patriot Act was a knee-jerk response to 9/11, rushed through Congress with almost no discussion or understanding of its terms by the legislators who voted for it. Some obscure law professor wrote most of it and got it rubber-stamped. The legislative deliberative process (which admittedly is often lacking in Wash DC) was completely nonexistent in the case of the USA PATRIOT Act.
What freedoms were lost? For US citizens, none that I can see. What freedoms were burdened or compromised? I'll point out a few.
First, the FBI, CIA and other agencies now have the power to secretly surveil your reading and Internet surfing habits (to include rummaging around on your computer hard drive) without ever telling you even after-the-fact and without first seeking permission from a judge. When they do seek permission from a judge, the judge is required to accept their averments at face-value that they have good reason to do what they are doing. Personally, I'm not the least bit worried that my personal security will be compromised. I am confident they will concentrate on the bad guys and leave me alone. But the point is, there is no longer a line drawn that keeps them looking solely at the bad guys. I must rely on their promises to be careful and have faith that they will. In the long run I do not believe it is wise to rely on government's expressions of "trust me, I won't abuse this potentially devastating power I now have to push the limits of the 4th Amendment." I would be gravely worried if a Hillary Clinton administration were telling me that.
Another example of burdened freedom: the requirement that virtually ALL cash transactions of $10,000 or more in ANY field of endeavor must be reported to the federal government. Again, I am not the least bit worried about providing this information--but I do object to the increased costs of compliance this forces on businesses. Businesses must now hire someone to ensure--or assign an employee the additional task of ensuring--compliance with this law. Small costs? Maybe, maybe not. For businesses living close to the margin (especially in the hospitality and travel businesses, which have suffered disproportionately in the wake of 9/11) the additional costs could mean the difference between viability and bankruptcy. It's a thing good tax cuts have been provided; these will help offset the costs from many businesses.
And so on.
In the final analysis, I have seen nothing that persuades me the FBI, CIA, and INS could not have fought this domestic war on terror with existing powers, competently employed.
The object was to have a system that could easily be publicized and understood. Look at how confusing the difference is between "tornado watch" and "tornado warning."
The color system is understood by everyone, since the media broadcasts when the threat level is raised. How would you suggest it be handled?
I've answered this for you kneepad ststists here many times...would you like the links.
And I've been a Ruplican since 1972. Last election my company provided rides to the polls for nursing home residents throughout South West Fla. We gave out RNC material to those who rode with us. Bush won Fla. by only 500 votes, in the end. My efforts were a big chunk of those votes. That will not happen this election. Bush has sold out conservatism and I puke when I read the solan.com type worship posts here by you and other liberals. And if you support Bush after the liberal policies he's embraced then that is what you are...a liberal. I am not to the point of voting against him. I just will not vote for him. If we are going to continue down the path of socialist destruction in this country then lets get down to it. The sooner the consequences of socialism come home to roost, the sooner the American people will be forced to understand conservative dogma and act on it.
Liars, Danm Liars and Bush Bots.
Three kinds.
Perhaps Bush can come up with a government progtam to help.
Conservatives need compassion too.
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