Here’s to all the naysayers and doubters who thought:
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National security trumps civil rights of a person in the US … per se
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The government can do no wrong or we shouldn’t restrain their all-out efforts to fight “terrorism”
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that we don’t need judges to sign warrants and authorize police action of a certain sort. ie no checks and balances…
[quote]
“Everybody wants to stop terrorists. But we also, though, as Americans, we believe in our privacy rights and we want those protected,” Leahy said. “There has to be a better chain of command for this. You cannot just have an FBI agent who decides he’d like to obtain Americans’ records, bank records or anything else and do it just because they want to.”
Critics seized on Mueller’s testimony as proof that a judge should sign off on the national security letters before they are issued.
“The credibility factor shows there needs to be outside oversight,” said former FBI agent Michael German, now a national security adviser for the American Civil Liberties Union. He also cast doubt on the FBI’s reforms.
“There were guidelines before, and there were laws before, and the FBI violated those laws,” German said. “And the idea that new guidelines would make a difference, I think cuts against rationality.” [/quote]