Richard Falkenrath is tired of all this civil rights nonsense.
Falkenrath is a former official with the Department of Homeland Security and now works for a consulting firm run by former Homeland Security honcho Michael Chertoff. In an op-ed for the New York Times, Falkenrath explains why a recent ban of the Blackberry by the United Arab Emirates was greeted “with approval, admiration and perhaps even a touch of envy” by “law enforcement investigators and intelligence officers” here in America.
The UAE banned the gizmo because its officials could not easily snoop on BlackBerry users. Falkenrath says the ban was justified because the BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, had “refused to modify its information architecture in a way that would enable authorities to intercept the communications of select subscribers.” Which “select subscribers”? Any subscribers the UAE government selected, of course. (RIM later cut a deal with UAE officials to restore service.)
Alas, because of legal obstacles in the U.S., “there remain a number of telecommunication methods that federal agencies cannot readily penetrate.” Falkenrath disparages the “liberal sensibilities” of those who wish to keep private communications private until a proper warrant is issued.
There’s a word for a government that can easily sidestep the rights of everyone in the name of national security: Dictatorship. Would Americans really be more “secure” if, like the United Arab Emirates, we lacked freedom of speech, freedom of association, democracy, and so forth?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Oppressors Triumphant”
There you go again.
Arguing that pesky Constitution that does not even go far enough in stating what the government must and might do on your behalf.
And it’s not like they don’t have anything but the best intentions.
The government snoops enough, as it is; look at those who write here-with yahoo accounts-yahoo stores the responses in their profile-anyone with a yahoo account-disable profile as much as possible‑, same with news items.
Is the government benevolent? My view, hell no. As to ‘security”- profiling is the best- white haired 75 year old grandmothers are NOT terrorist threats; nor likely to mug people. Yet those who are- cannot profile. This is sick.
They want to ban the Blackberry because it may be used in crimes. Like the guy who goes to the bank and says, fill up this big with cash, or my Blackberry will explode. Or maybe the guy robbing the liquor store who uses his Blackberry as a lethal weapon.
I say let the UAE ban the Blackberry, computers, the internet, and the telephone too. It will make the UAE a safer place, and probably the USA too.