Letters to the Editor
cabdriver
Published Letters: 312 Editor's Choice: 6
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investigating the 9-11 conspirators
[Read the article: Michael Mukasey's tearful lies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have yet to find anyone able- or even willing- to demonstrate how additional surveillance powers and abrogations of civil liberties would have managed to uncover the network associated with the 9-11 hijackings- rather than simple diligent investigation work, improved inter-agency communication, and a modernized techlogical infrastructure (Correct me if I'm wrong on the details, but I seem to recall from reading former FBI director Larry Freeh's book that as of the year 2001, FBI office computers didn't even have connection to the Internet! )
Compare the effort spent by Federal law enforcement agencies on surveilling and investigating pre-9/11 Al Qaeda activites in the US, vs. the energy expended on activites like "Operation Green Merchant", which targeted stores selling hydroponic gear and lighting set-ups popular with marijuana growers who had been forced indoors by police actions:
"...By July, 1992, the DEA was involved in Operation Green Merchant, a campaign to eradicate indoor marijuana cultivation across the USA. Their targets were hydroponics stores and their customers all over the country. They would copy down the license plate numbers of customers, follow and spy on them, steal their garbage, and subpoena utility bills to check electrical usage, among other tactics in their effort to catch and arrest people..." http://www.hr95.org/Tuckers.html
vs.
"...we did nothing to modernize our information systems. So that they were not interconnected and they did not have access to things that private companies have. For example, there are a lot of companies that sell mailing lists and do mass mailings for a living that had all these terrorists in their files before September the 11th.
One of them is headquartered in Arkansas, where I used to live, and I went up there and found Muhammad Atta in the computers of the company, with 12 addresses. Now if we had that information, the same information that’s available on you and me, and you say, “Somebody’s been here less than year. If they’ve got 12 addresses, they’re either really rich or they’re up to no good.”
Another man had 30 credit cards and $250,000 in debt, another one of the al-Qaeda killers. The business community of America helped to finance his murderous behavior. He had 30 credit cards and a quarter of a million dollars in debt, was on a consolidated payout schedule of $9,800 a month. Now, we ought to be able to do a check on that. If a person has more than 5 credit cards and more than $20,000 or $30,000 in debt, after being here only 6 months, they’re either real wealthy or up to no good. It ought to be easy to figure out which..." http://tinyurl.com/2dy6oh
I'd say there was something going wrong, there. http://tinyurl.com/2bvjo (click my screen name signature for link)
But there's no need for tossing the Bill of Rights into the shredder in order to fix it. http://tinyurl.com/36mtr4
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mte...
[Read the article: Is Briana Waters a terrorist?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"However, the third stage would be more problematic, no protection agency, public or private, would have any special rights; their members would have the same rights as any local individual, or any community militia members..."
Spare me the theorizing. Is that how the breakdown of central government has worked out in cases like Waziristan, Somalia, Liberia, or the Colombian countryside?
Given a set of conditions like that, it doesn't matter what you want. It doesn't matter what reasonable and moral people want, or what mothers, children, or the elderly want. It doesn't matter what the vast majority of "the community" wants. What matters is the views and mandates of those who have superior firepower & cold-blooded skills required to annihilate anyone defined as the opposition, down to the faintest whisper of dissent. Meet the new boss...the regional warlord. He'll teach you what you need to do to survive...point the rifle over there and pull the trigger, that guy over there is being used for target practice. And if you don't, you'll join him.
It's like that.
Nonetheless, I'll grant that the scenario of my earlier message is far-fetched, in some respects. For instance, it would be highly unlikely that the electric power grids would be in working order, much less the high-technology facilities of a modern university.
In gold rush era San Francisco, the most benign historical case of anarchy of which I'm aware, the potholes grew big enough to drown mules. A dozen eggs were worth $10-50 c.1850 U.S. dollars in gold dust. One apple cost $1-5 dollars. plywood boards stretched between sawhorses were rented out as beds for overnight lodging. People slept with one eye open and pistols in their hands, of course.
The arrangement undoubtedly had its adventurous aspects, especially for young, able-bodied young men in the appropriate mindset. You know...just in from the gold fields, ready to be somebody and/or beat somebody, prowling the muddy streets with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a Bowie knife in the other, not a cop in sight, looking for a whorehouse...paradise on earth.
But it was no place to raise a family. And it couldn't last. It was intolerable. http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hbtbcidx.htm