Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The pervasive terrorist threat to America

Donovan email to point out this datum on the domestic War On Terror:
American government agencies – state, local, and federal -- made a record 13,753 requests to read emails or gather other information sent through Google’s Gmail and other services in 2012, more than half without warrants, according to statistics released by Google. 

The total number of users about whom government agencies wanted information also set a record at 31,072, up from 23,300 in 2011, the first year Google began reporting the data. The discrepancy comes because government agencies request information on multiple users or accounts at the same time.
This is War On Terror activity, of course.  After all, this is all the fruit of the PATRIOT Act, enacted in haste in the days following 9/11.  Got to keep Harry and Harriet Homeowner safe, don't ya know.

I had not realized that there were 31,072 domestic terrorists in this fair land.  That's quite a shocking indictment of my fellow citizens.  Fortunately for me and mine, the Fed.Gov doesn't need to bother with that whole "warrant" and "probably cause" nonsense for half of these.  A waste of resources better spent protecting the population, really.

And those of you who suspect that almost none of these are actual, you know, terrorists - and that the investigations are for drug dealing, unpaid parking tickets, and attendance at a NRA meeting - well, you're just as nasty and suspicious as I am.

7 comments:

Alan said...

Everything is terrorism these days. Unless you have something they want to confiscate then it's drugs.

Divemedic said...

Don't forget the cops that are using the police tools for stalking others to get dates:
http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2012/12/15/report_officer_misus.html

Glen Filthie said...

BP are you going to sit there with a straight face and tell me that those 13,753 suspects are all harmless home owners like you and I?

Good grief - this is why I can't take libertarians seriously. Surveillance proves innocence as well, boys. Sheesh, you wail and sob when the cops kick down the wrong door on one hand - and you want to deny them the tools to prevent that on the other!

This is why the right is fractured and we have a prog moron in the Whitehouse: as long as libertarians refuse to acknowledge certain social realities I will hang seperately from them, thank you very much...

Divemedic said...

No, what he is saying is that this law is being misused to investigate crimes and gather evidence which SHOULD require a warrant.

Wait until this law is used to round up gun owners, and we will see the Republicans change their tune. This is why I can't call myself a Republican, because of the unabashed badge sniffing.

Borepatch said...

Glen: because government officials never exaggerate, huh?

mdmnm said...

How many of those "without a warrant" requests are via subpoena? That's a common way of requesting info to try to prove a criminal case.

Borepatch said...

mdmnm, I wouldn't have put up this post if I didn't think I knew the answer.