F.B.I. Given Broad Authority to Monitor the Public

[Bill Stewart]

> >F.B.I. Given Broad Authority to Monitor the Public
> >By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> > WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday
> > gave the FBI broad new authority to monitor Internet sites,
> > libraries, churches and political organizations,
> > calling restrictions on domestic spying ``a competitive advantage for 
> terrorists.''

Maybe I'm missing something fundamental here, but where does
either Ashcroft or Bush have the ability to give the FBI any authority?
The Constitution can give the executive branch authority for things,
or Congress can legislate authority if it's Constitutional,
or the courts can rule that existing statutory or Constitutional
authority extends to some use the executive branch wants to make of it,
or the Commander In Chief can tell the military to do military things
authorized by Congress under declarations of war or other statutes,
but that's not what the politicians and their pet press agencies are saying.

If Ashcroft wants his underlings to monitor the internet,
TCP/IP will let him do lots of things, and Bugs will let him do more,
but if he needs cooperation from ISPs or other online service or
content providers, his choices are either subpoenas or extortion.
And if he wants them to investigate churches, I'd recommend that he
first try being as fundamentalist about the Constitution as he is
about his personal religious views, and see if that leaves him any room
for bothering them.

>  http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-FBI-Reorganizing.html

Which AP was that again, and how long have they been online?  :-)