Bush wants an extension of the Protect America Act. This act allows the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept e-mails and phone calls of suspected terrorists without having to obtain a court warrant first. Bush addressed this in his State of the Union address asking for Congress to act before it expires on Friday.
Bush said, "This means that if you do not act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger. Congress must ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted."
Our citizens will be in greater danger??? I think there are many more things Bush should be worrying about that put us in danger...
This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 426: Congressional Politics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
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3 comments:
Wow, so what other threats should we be focused on? Should we be like Bill Clinton and stick our head in the sand and pretend there is no terroist threat out there? Besides where does one get the idea that cell phone calls or even e-mails are private? Anyone will a little technical knowledge can use a simple scanner to listen in on your conversations without a warrent. Also if there was another attack, and more Americans were killed, the blame Bush first people would be asking why he did nothing. Now that he is doing something, we ask why is he doing that? You can't have it both ways.
This is a very gray area. Although I believe in the security of every citizen, I also believe that every citizen has a right to privacy. Taking preventative measures that include making a warrant and probable cause unnecessary is alienating and encourages the general distrust of government that is already rampant in the U.S.
So because anyone with "a little technical knowledge" knows how to illegally listen in on peoples conversations we should allow our government to? That sounds like a REALLY good idea. Instead of thinking about the threat of terrorism all the time maybe this administration should learn from history and see the dangers of infringing on the civil liberties of Americans. It becomes a very slippery slope.
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