General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Dear Pres. Obama: Dissent isn’t Possible in a Surveillance State (By Juan Cole) [View all]randome
(34,845 posts)I mean, if a terrorist attack happens here, it makes sense to see who the terrorist may have been in contact with just before the attack.
And it doesn't even need to be a terrorist. It could be a money laundering organization. A child pornography ring. Any of these activities that have a foreign component to them.
From a pure law enforcement standpoint, it makes sense to have that data readily available rather than having to send a warrant to every telecom in the country to see who those contacts are.
So long as it's kept in the kind of 'black box' system described by Bernstein and the NSA documents, I personally don't have a problem with it.
Can the system be abused? No doubt. Any system can. The telecoms themselves could spy on all of us if they wanted. But at least the NSA has procedures in place. If those procedures aren't being followed, I think every single one of us would voice our opposition.
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