MB Civic

To the Editor:

Re “Cheney Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping” (front page, May 14):

The American Revolution arose partly in response to general search warrants granted by England, which gave arbitrary and intrusive powers to government officers.

Learning from the experience, the founders adopted the Fourth Amendment to protect us against unreasonable and warrantless intrusions of privacy by a powerful and partisan federal government.

Strong privacy rights lay the foundation for democracy by enabling the exercise of political freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment. During the 20th century, countless dictators like Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein used domestic surveillance and spying to monitor and suppress political dissent.

In our own country, the Watergate scandal exposed a program of surveillance by the Nixon White House that was intended to sabotage a presidential campaign.

Combating terrorism is a compelling government interest, but the means used must not endanger our democratic freedoms.

Learning from history, the White House should recognize that secret surveillance of citizens without transparent processes and judicial oversight carries a grave risk of political abuse.

Adwait Talathi
Sunnyvale, Calif., May 14, 2006

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To the Editor:

Re “Questions Raised for Phone Giants in Spy Data Furor” (front page, May 13):

Our enemies may mock our free society, may plot against us and sometimes succeed in attacking us and bringing great harm upon our country. But if we compromise our values and democracy while trying to thwart our adversaries, there will be nothing valuable here worth defending.

Frank X. White III
Silver Spring, Md., May 14, 2006

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To the Editor:

Everybody knows that the A B C’s of intelligence are to intercept your enemies’ communications. How do Americans expect the intelligence agencies to intercept enemy communications if they are not given access to phone records?

Americans can rest assured that the National Security Agency does not have the manpower to do anything with these phone records other than to ferret out the suspect ones.

I, for one, will rest easier walking into a mall or sitting in a restaurant if I know that our government is doing everything it can to catch those who would harm us. This, despite the fact that it can count the number of times per week that I call my mother-in-law.

AJ Tal Chermon
Monsey, N.Y., May 14, 2006

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To the Editor:

If examining the phone database of all calls made by all American citizens is legal, essential in fighting terrorism and saves lives, what are we to make of the Bush administration’s risking our lives by allowing Qwest to withhold its database?

Charles Merrill
New York, May 13, 2006