Mere Rhetoric: Democrats Renew Effort To Undermine Electronic Surveillance

Last year's effort died before it got to a floor vote. But luckily the Democrats have priorities, and one of those priorities is undermining domestic intelligence:

Two U.S. senators on Monday reintroduced a proposal designed to rein in government electronic spying activities like a once-secret National Security Agency program. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) said they'll take another crack at passing a bill establishing that a 1978 law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is the "exclusive means" by which electronic surveillance can be carried out by the government. FISA generally requires investigators to obtain a warrant from a secret court before monitoring communications involving foreign powers and suspected terrorists in which one end originates in the United States.

In the background, some of this is being driven by a general distaste for any kind of domestic monitoring. One of the stories that broke right after the last effort failed was about the monitoring of peace activists who rubbed shoulders with very non-peace activists:

Sacramento peace protesters were targeted by a widespread domestic spying operation in which the Pentagon monitored anti-war groups across the country, newly released government documents show. The documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and made public Tuesday, detail entries made into the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notice database dating back to November 2004, when two local groups protested at the Military Entrance Processing Station on Rosin Court in North Sacramento.

You know, we're of two minds on this. On the one hand, we're not fans of the government checking in on its own people. On the other hand, we just have a tough time getting worked up about this. You can't stand on the stage next to ANSWER and CAIR terrorist enables and then complain when the government wants to know how deeply you're involved with ANSWER and CAIR terrorist enablers.

Speaking of which - we would kind of like to know how deeply they were involved with ANSWER and CAIR terrorist enablers.

References:
* Spy program back in Senate spotlight
* Area activists spied on

Previously:
* Northwest Airlines Caves To CAIR Boycott Threat And Apologizes, MR Caves To Our Worst Instincts And Publishes Conspiracy Theory Bait
* Uh Oh - Looks Like Someone Didn't Get the "Koran Bans Forced Conversions" Memo
* CAIR Protest In So Cal

About

Omri Ceren is a PhD student studying Rhetoric at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. He lives in downtown Los Angeles.
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