On Sat, 3 Jul 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
At 11:57 PM 7/3/04 -0500, J.A. Terranson wrote:
requires blackbagging - something that was a lot more limited prior to 9/11).
Was the FBI/SS (ie, US internal security service) so impotent after the McVeigh Oklahoma ANFO feedback that they couldn't pull off a black bag job on organized militias, militant racial or religious (eg antiabortion) groups, etc?
The feds that I know were uniformly terrified of any OOB activity prior to 9/11, in the absence of a secure authorizing paper trail (hard to get at that time). They are a lot more at ease nowadays :-/
Not that I expect an answer.
Obviously 911 gave the State "freedom" to do as it pleases, Bill of Rights be damned, but one must wonder.
What really interesting is that they don't see this. Honestly, they don't. I've had endless discussions with not just feds, but state and locals too - only one (and sometimes two) out of ~30 see that there is any incongruity between what is, and what was intended to be. Most of them honestly believe that they are "handcuffed" with "too much restrictive policy". Perception is everything... -- Yours, J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org "...justice is a duty towards those whom you love and those whom you do not. And people's rights will not be harmed if the opponent speaks out about them." Osama Bin Laden