\n
I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even get into whether or not the NSA should be able to get records of all Americans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 phone calls. I will just quickly register my annoyance with one justification I keep hearing.<\/p>\n
I keep hearing, about this and the last possibly illegal spying adventure, that if we had only been doing this earlier, we may have prevented 9-11.<\/p>\n
First of all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to say that something \u00e2\u20ac\u0153may have\u00e2\u20ac\u009d prevented 9-11. Eating more peaches \u00e2\u20ac\u0153may\u00e2\u20ac\u009d have prevented 9-11. Once we convert \u00e2\u20ac\u0153may\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153would,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we enter trickier territory.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably not true that this latest bit of data-collection would have actually made the difference. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face it, had we been doing everything well enough, we would have stopped 9-11 without the offending domestic spying. If everyone in the FBI, NSA, and INS were razor-sharp, then they could have caught the bad guys using the techniques that were already in place. How many times have we heard about the signs and clues that were disregarded or misunderstood? And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even saying that people were negligent. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m saying that intelligence and analysis is hard. (Also, I bet that some people were negligent.)<\/p>\n
What makes them think that any other bit of spying here or there would have provided the catalyst to act? There would have just been more clues that weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t properly read.<\/p>\n
But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say, for the sake of argument, that these measures would have stopped 9-11. Is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would Have Stopped 9-11\u00e2\u20ac\u009d really the standard that we want to use to determine the acceptability of a government action?<\/p>\n
Requiring background checks of all airline passengers \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would Have Stopped 9-11\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Refusing passage to all non-US citizens \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would Have Stopped 9-11\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Requiring travelers to log where they stay, where they go, how long they go for, and who they meet, probably \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would Have Stopped 9-11\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. We all know how low crime was in the Soviet states.<\/p>\n
And still, a reasonably dedicated, well-funded and organized terrorist organization probably could have found a way around those regulations.<\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like the idea of the executive branch spying on US citizens without any congressional or judicial oversight. Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make sense, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not been a single reason given for why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s necessary. But regardless of all that, I just wish that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d come up with better justifications. Every time they mention 9-11, I get an image of a very well-worn playbook with only a few pages. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lazy and insulting. Couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they at least care enough to put a little effort into their cynical double-talk?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even get into whether or not the NSA should be able to get records of all Americans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 phone calls. I will just quickly register my annoyance with one justification I keep hearing. I keep hearing, about this and the last possibly illegal spying adventure, that if we had only been doing this earlier, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyrob.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}