I don’t understand why so many people are against allowing the government to protect our country.  As the Democrats debate whether or not running wiretaps on suspected terrorists phone calls violates their privacy rights terrorist groups are continuing to plot.  I always thought that wiretapping was going on and didn’t realize that it was something new, or at least new to the public, until people started complaining about it.  Why would the Democrats be against trying to protect this country, I don’t know.  What are these “Privacy People” trying to hide? What are the Democrats trying to hide?

Recently the TSA, transportation security agency (the ones that check people in airports), have been allowed to take laptops from people entering the country and look through files on it to see if there is anything suspicious. This only effects people coming into the US, not traveling within. Still the “Privacy People” are in a big up roar over it, even though it probably won’t ever effect most of them.  If I was frequently entering and leaving the US, the only thing I would not like about someone checking my laptop every time I had to enter the county is that it might take time out of my day, but if it helps improve national security I’m all for it.

So the most recent security measure that is being set into place is a satellite-surveillance program that would help protect the US by using imagery to find potential terrorist attack locations and to help with emergency response situations.

rja

WSJ.com -

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security will proceed with the first phase of a controversial satellite-surveillance program, even though an independent review found the department hasn’t yet ensured the program will comply with privacy laws.

Congress provided partial funding for the program in a little-debated $634 billion spending measure that will fund the government until early March. For the past year, the Bush administration had been fighting Democratic lawmakers over the spy program, known as the National Applications Office.

The program is designed to provide federal, state and local officials with extensive access to spy-satellite imagery — but no eavesdropping — to assist with emergency response and other domestic-security needs, such as identifying where ports or border areas are vulnerable to terrorism.

Since the department proposed the program a year ago, several Democratic lawmakers have said that turning the spy lens on America could violate Americans’ privacy and civil liberties unless adequate safeguards were required.