“Keep Big Brother’s Hands Off the Internet” is the title of the 1997 article. In it, one can find such gems as:
There is a concern that the Internet could be used to commit crimes and that advanced encryption could disguise such activity. However, we do not provide the government with phone jacks outside our homes for unlimited wiretaps. Why, then, should we grant government the Orwellian capability to listen at will and in real time to our communications across the Web?
The protections of the Fourth Amendment are clear. The right to protection from unlawful searches is an indivisible American value. Two hundred years of court decisions have stood in defense of this fundamental right. The state’s interest in effective crime-fighting should never vitiate the citizens’ Bill of Rights.
The ACLU? The Electronic Frontier Foundation? Some left-wing mush-head?
How about (then-)Senator from Missouri John Ashcroft?
Of course, two things have changed.
1. This was during a Clinton administration, and about their attempt to get the US as broker of all security key info. Clinton and his Demotyrants clearly couldn’t be trusted with this sort of info, right? Now that it’s another Bush in the White House, and Ashcroft running the DoJ, all those silly Fourth Amendment and Orwellian concerns are unneeded, right?
2. This was pre-9/11. And, sure, to some degree that does change things. On the other hand, and not to belittle the tragedy of that date, that was just one set of terrorist incidents, on one day, and it’s not clear that the problem was lack of government monitoring of encrypted info on the Internet as much as lack of effective analysis and management of the info they had. That hasn’t stopped Ashcroft (et al.) from trying to get as much info into the Feds’ hands as possible.
The Irony Gods must be having a ball.
(via BoingBoing)
grr. The native land of the politician, “Hypocrisy”
grr…
Consider:
Regardless of their intent, the Bush administration is putting together all the building blocks necessary for a fascist dictatorship. They’re already disappearing people, more or less. They’ve got Poindexter in charge of the internal spying organization — a man who got along just fine with right-wing regimes who routinely ‘disappeared’ people, then tortured and killed them. Daddy Bush, Cheney, et al whole-heartedly supported such people. They’re from the government; trust them.
They and other Republicans are adamantly opposed to any Democratic administration getting control of such tools.
Do you really think they’ll hand over that kind of power to the demonized Democrats? Not a chance.
If this goes through they’ll use the information to make damned sure they never lose again, that anyone investigating their abuses is detected and dissuaded, ruined or disappeared.
I don’t see that happening, but certainly I can see why you’d think it could be/is.
Power corrupts, and this is power to make J. Edgar’s secret files look like nothing. Power to destroy 2/3 of their opposition and blackmail most of the rest.
While I may not be quite as deep in my beliefs about it all as Randy, I can see where he’s coming from. I’ve said all along that 2000 was a coup; we’ll see how it plays out.