Is There Something Better than Big Brother? Big Neighbor?
Did McVeigh or any other domestic terrorist change our society by what they did? Did their acts result in the trampling of our Bill of Rights? What is so different about the foreign bogeyman? While some may argue that the devastation of 9/11 was not comparable to anything that happened before or since, I argue that normal intelligence channels--w/o present-day eavesdropping--did manage to warn the powers that be who, for reasons we may never fully know, chose not to act on it. The same thing happened with the Boston Bombers--no one was paying adequate attention. Some may argue that widespread surveillance may catch domestic terrorists. But we need to remember the crucial aspect of the surveillance process as it is now promulgated. It is necessary to first become aware of an overseas terrorist and his phone numbers without which we cannot tie domestic players with foreign enablers. Here in the states, the NSA would first need to have known of McVeigh's membership in...