In Defense of the NSA Wiretaps

The media needs to get a grip on this situation, as well as politicians. I said previously that they should tread lightly with regard to outright condemnation of this program. To speak of this program with the usual partisan rhetoric and with no regard for realities is irresponsible.

The media needs to make the point based on this quote everytime they spout off about this: "This is about ... gathering up intelligence regarding al Qaeda," he said. "We're talking about communications where one end of the call is outside the United States and where there's a reasonable basis to believe that a person on the call is either a member of al Qaeda or affiliated with al Qaeda." Or as Bush said, "These are not phone calls within the United States, this is a phone call of an al Qaeda, known al Qaeda suspect, making a phone call into the United States." Because this is not a simple black and white subject. The government taking steps to safeguard the country is not automatically "evil," or an intentional step toward an Orwellian world order. These are not wiretaps for the sake of wiretaps tracking every American citizen in the country. We scream and freak out when something of the nature of 9/11 or Katrina happens. Some insist the Administration/goverment is incompetent, while adding they are spying on us all. Does anyone truly believe the government could actually handle this much data?

The President recently said, "I'm mindful of your civil liberties, and so I had all kinds of lawyers review the process. We briefed members of the United States Congress ... about this program." and is one responsible step.

On the opposite side of the argument opponents have said, they do not believe the President has this authority or U.S. Rep. Bob Barr,(R) saying on CNN: "There are important constitutional principles that are involved here that seem to have been violated. ... I agree with the [former] vice president that these are very serious matters. They need to be looked into."

No doubt they are serious matters, but belief of or believing the President went beyond his authority are two different things.

On December 16th Gore said, "the use of the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without court approval shows that President Bush "has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently."

According to Gore this shows the President has been "breaking the law..." which is his opinion.

We can all spout off believing this or that is wrong, but ultimately we really don't have a clue, just as most politicians do not have a clue, especially with regard to anything that they are not on top of at the time something happens or is reported happening.

These days there is so much partisan rancor and *ss coverage that one truly needs to hold off on making statements that turn out to be nothing more than their opinion.