Let's Use All the Tools
The answer, in part, is yes. There has been such political mismanagement by this administration that the public is no longer inclined to give the president the benefit of the doubt on national security issues. Quite simply, the administration could have done a much better job of explaining both the potential and the limits of data mining. It should have made it clear that in the right context, no one's privacy would be violated.
The American public is going to have to come to terms with the fact that it is better to allow such activities, as long as they are disclosed--but only to the appropriate government agencies and committees of Congress. Publicity undermines the effectiveness of these kinds of measures by alerting terrorists to change their behavior. Besides, why should we forsake our one big advantage, technology, in the war on terrorism?
Americans have a long and proud history of low tolerance for government snooping. But the freedom we enjoy has to be protected from enemies who would destroy every vestige of it if they could. The government would be lax indeed if, out of fear of criticism, it stopped collecting information. In the past, such intelligence has helped convict thousands of felons and solved or helped solve countless numbers of terrible crimes. We should not preclude its use now to help detect the enemies in our midst.
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