Sigh:
FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday called on Internet service providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year.
"Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms," Mueller said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Boston.
Because anyone who wants not to be monitored or opposes this kind of surveillance must be a terrorist or a pedophile.
The speech to the law enforcement group, which approved a resolution on the topic earlier in the day, echoes other calls from Bush administration officials to force private firms to record information about customers. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, for instance, told Congress last month that "this is a national problem that requires federal legislation."
Justice Department officials admit privately that data retention legislation is controversial enough that there wasn't time to ease it through the U.S. Congress before politicians left to campaign for re-election. Instead, the idea is expected to surface in early 2007, and one Democratic politician has already promised legislation.
Oh yeah, that was my emphasis. "Ease it through." Just reading that makes me feel like I need a bath.
Posted by binky at October 18, 2006 05:40 PM | TrackBack | Posted to The Ever Shrinking Constitution>Because anyone who wants not to be monitored or opposes this kind of surveillance must be a terrorist or a pedophile.
Oh, c'mon. They mean well. They're just trying to warn us all that bad shit happens. Really, it's for our own good! all of it!
Posted by: belledame222 at October 21, 2006 05:27 PM | PERMALINK