Brian Fung and Andrea Peterson reports:
The nation’s top telecom regulator recommended broadening America’s wiretapping laws Tuesday, in response to the recent attacks in Paris by the Islamic State that left more than 120 people dead.
While the Federal Communications Commission cannot take direct action against the Islamic State, such as shutting down its Web sites or social media accounts, Congress could do “specific things” allowing the FCC to assist law enforcement more effectively, agency Chairman Tom Wheeler told a House subcommittee.
Read more on Washington Post.
No, we don’t need broader wiretap laws. And we don’t need to renew the encryption debate. What we need is for politicians and lawmakers to stop trying to use attacks as excuses to justify their pet agendas to further erode our privacy and civil liberties.
Yesterday, I was talking with my personal trainer as I worked out. When he’s not a trainer, he’s a police officer in NYC. “You can’t follow the Constitution any more,” he told me. “It doesn’t work. Times have changed.”
Maybe he said that to me to get my adrenaline pumping but it turns out, he really believes that.
I still believe in what made this country great. Some of us resisted caving in to fear after 9/11. Why are our elected officials so ready to cave in to it now? Why don’t they acknowledge that all the restrictions they imposed after 9/11 in the name of protecting us didn’t really protect us? Imposing new restrictions or further eroding our privacy and civil liberties will not keep us safe.