FBI's powers may become fearsome

[genieroze]

Opinion


FBI's powers may become fearsome




Posted on Tue, May. 24, 2005

FBI's powers may become fearsome

By Dan K. Thomasson

Some really scary things are happening around Washington these days.

Congress has become a place of great incivility and rancor, which threaten to undermine any hope of legislative remedy to a myriad of problems, from Social Security to soaring health-care costs to immigration to a steadily crumbling manufacturing base once the envy of the world.

But perhaps the most frightening prospect for Americans is an unfettered national police force with the sole discretion to determine who can be investigated as a potential terrorist. That's the impact of little-known proposals to greatly expand the powers of the FBI, permitting its agents to seize business records without a warrant and to track the mail of those in terrorist inquiries without regard to Postal Service concerns.

Because the government can label almost any group or individual a terrorist threat, the potential for abuse by not having to show probable cause is enormous, prompting civil libertarians to correctly speculate about who will guard against the guardians. Up until now the answer was the Constitution as interpreted by the judiciary. But it is clear that sidestepping any such restriction is the real and present danger of the post-9/11 era.

A wise man, the late Sen. John Williams of Delaware, once counseled that any proposed legislation should be regarded in the light of its worst potential consequence, particularly when it came to laws that enhance the investigative and prosecutorial powers of the government at the expense of civil rights. This is most likely to occur in times of national stress, when the Constitution is always vulnerable to assault - i.e., the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.



http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/editorial/11721829.htm

[Daphne08]

1. Excellent words, and I remember

when the name of J. Edgar Hoover was enough to strike fear into the heart of every American! :scared:

This message needs to be repeated far and wide in this country so that everyone will eventually see it.

At what point does a government become more frightening to its citizens than a terrorist?

[no_hypocrisy]

2. The FBI is morphing incrementally into the GESTAPO & STASI (East

German Secret Police).