Spying on the locals
Cheney has been trying to justify the administration's use of National Security Letters to obtain financial records of Americans.
The story is still loose on details, but apparently the Pentagon has been using the letters to coerce banks and other financial institutions to turn over information on US citizens, presumably because there was some suspicion that they were threatening military bases.
National Security Letters are a government technique to investigate citizens while sidestepping any normal due process or court oversight. Although the ability has existed for years, the Patriot Act gave it teeth. The normal user is the CIA, not the military.
The problem with this story like so many others, is that although it feels reasonable to not stop the government from doing reasonable things to facilitate an ongoing investigation, there's a big element of trust here to not require any checks and balances or oversight on the government throughout the process. IMHO, the best government is one who is being watched, while they watch over us. By that standard, this is a less-than-perfect government.
Posted on January 15, 2007
