Lawrence Wright’s article on DNI McConnell in the New Yorker has so far been a great read, but I get so annoyed at lines like this:
Unfortunately, intelligence officials have a poor record of safeguarding civil liberties within the country, nor do Americans have any obvious recourse if they learn that they have been spied upon.
We’ve had some sort of intelligence service (or services) in this country since before we were a country, but to be fair let’s just go back to 1947 and the National Security Act. COINTELPRO ran from 56-71. CHAOS and related programs shut down in 69. CIA and FBI mail-opening programs closed in 73.
- 61 years for the “modern” intelligence community age
- 17 years of intentional, often misguided focus on Americans by certain segments of the community
I agree with Wright that, if you’ve been wrongly targeted you should have a reasonable assurance that your information will be purged. Such a process exists, which I’m betting he and others know, but that always fails to get mentioned for some reason.
Comments (4)
“Unfortunately, intelligence officials have a poor record of safeguarding civil liberties within the country, nor do Americans have any obvious recourse if they learn that they have been spied upon.”
Time again authors publish this sort of allegation and no one calls them on it…I dont understand.
I have yet to find anyone who espouses the belief that “civil liberties” are being:
1). Violated
or
2). Rolled back
who can tell me exactly which of their rights and liberties have been taken from them.
Posted by Mick Kraut![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://haftofthespear.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 14, 2008 3:25 PM
Posted on February 14, 2008 15:25
NSA call database? The TALON database/JPEN program? Warrantless NSA surveillance (of course that’s only a civil liberties issue because people are too lazy to go through FISA).
It seems to me that little information exists on any civil liberties abuses of the IC because either no-one has standing to sue because they can’t prove they’ve been spied on because that info is secret, or the State Secrets privilege is used to dismiss the case. Absent lawsuits, all our info comes through leaks, i.e. is unreliable.
Posted by Adrian Martin![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://haftofthespear.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 14, 2008 8:01 PM
Posted on February 14, 2008 20:01
If people were actually being, um, liberated, from their liberties wouldn’t all the people worried about the ‘chill wind’ actually have been spirited away by now? I mean you can’t turn around and not see Medea Benjamin, etc. making a spectacle of themselves. I’ve been to police states, and this ain’t it.
Comments isn’t really the place for a full-bore discussion; who is up for a little eRound Table?
Posted by Michael Tanji![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://haftofthespear.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 14, 2008 8:26 PM
Posted on February 14, 2008 20:26
“Bring it on”!
Posted by Adrian Martin![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://haftofthespear.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 15, 2008 8:08 AM
Posted on February 15, 2008 08:08