GlassSteagallfan
12th July 2013, 06:44
Rep. Holt, Citing Alexander Hamilton, Debunks Obama's "False Choice" of Giving Up Liberty for Security
July 11, 2013 • 9:55AM
Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), himself a former military intelligence official, has announced that he will soon introduce legislation to repeal the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act, "the laws that brought us our current surveillance state."
Holt says his bill would "restore the probable cause-based warrant requirement for any surveillance against an American citizen," and that it would provide genuine legal protections for whistleblowers such as Thomas Drake, who was prosecuted by the Justice Department for exposing that the mass collections and "sweeping fishing expeditions" for personal data now being carried out, are completely unnecessary to obtain information on actual terrorists.
In an op-ed published in the Asbury Park (NJ) Press (http://www.app.com/article/20130710/NJOPINION03/307100009/HOLT-Liberty-yields-false-security), Holt takes on what he calls "the false choice" being presented by the media and intelligence officials, that, "In order to be safe, we must be willing — in President Barack Obama's words — to accept 'modest encroachments' on our civil liberties."
"As we renew the debate over the almost incredible power and implications of the surveillance activities that are now in the news," Holt writes, "we all would do well to remember what Alexander Hamilton noted in Federalist No. 8:
"'Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.'
"With those words, Hamilton not only describes his own time, but post-9/11 America as well," Holt states, going on to describe the massive collection of "metadata" by the NSA. "If we hope to restore and preserve the republic that Hamilton, Patrick Henry and other Founders risked their lives to create, we must end the industrial-scale surveillance and perpetual war mentality that has been foisted on the American people in the name of 'national security.'"
Source (http://larouchepac.com/node/27301)
July 11, 2013 • 9:55AM
Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), himself a former military intelligence official, has announced that he will soon introduce legislation to repeal the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act, "the laws that brought us our current surveillance state."
Holt says his bill would "restore the probable cause-based warrant requirement for any surveillance against an American citizen," and that it would provide genuine legal protections for whistleblowers such as Thomas Drake, who was prosecuted by the Justice Department for exposing that the mass collections and "sweeping fishing expeditions" for personal data now being carried out, are completely unnecessary to obtain information on actual terrorists.
In an op-ed published in the Asbury Park (NJ) Press (http://www.app.com/article/20130710/NJOPINION03/307100009/HOLT-Liberty-yields-false-security), Holt takes on what he calls "the false choice" being presented by the media and intelligence officials, that, "In order to be safe, we must be willing — in President Barack Obama's words — to accept 'modest encroachments' on our civil liberties."
"As we renew the debate over the almost incredible power and implications of the surveillance activities that are now in the news," Holt writes, "we all would do well to remember what Alexander Hamilton noted in Federalist No. 8:
"'Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.'
"With those words, Hamilton not only describes his own time, but post-9/11 America as well," Holt states, going on to describe the massive collection of "metadata" by the NSA. "If we hope to restore and preserve the republic that Hamilton, Patrick Henry and other Founders risked their lives to create, we must end the industrial-scale surveillance and perpetual war mentality that has been foisted on the American people in the name of 'national security.'"
Source (http://larouchepac.com/node/27301)