http://www.reason.com/cy/cy092401.html September 24, 2001 Civil liberties may take a hit By Cathy Young [...] The movements of foreign visitors will be scrutinized more closely. Perhaps most alarming to many civil libertarians, it's likely that the government will expand its ability to monitor electronic mail, which has been a controversial issue for some time. Do I like the idea of the government intercepting e-mail? No. But, as long as there's judicial oversight and due process, that's no different from its longstanding power to intercept regular mail. Do I like the idea of people being able to encrypt electronic communications so that they are beyond surveillance? Frankly, I found it scary even before Sept. 11 - precisely because of the threat of terrorism. It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes; perhaps there are no true libertarians in times of terrorist attacks. Even in the Declaration of Independence, the right to liberty is preceded by the right to life. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Sep 26 2001 - 15:32:35 PDT