"DSK" wrote in message
...
So, this means you are in favor of any US gov't agency being allowed...
or encouraged... to spy on citizens by whatever means the agents find
convenient, for any reason the agents can think of?


Dan J.S. wrote:
Only if there is reasonable reason to, that can be proven in court.
However, at the risk of timeliness, some of this spying could be executed
without a court order.


A system such as this would be wide-open to abuse for all kinds of
purposes.

In other words, give the various enforcement agencies a blank check to spy
on whomever they please, whenever they please.

However, if I were to legislate it, I would set aside 20 federal judges
that do nothing but warrants for this exact reason. These judges would
approve warrants in real time. On as needed basis.

That would be my solution.

That's a little better, but is still a very drastic weakening of
Constitutional protection.

When would you prosecute a gov't agent... or an entire agency... and throw
them in the slammer, hard time, for breaking a US citizen's Constitutional
right to privacy and security from unreasonable search?

The Bush Administration's answer seems to be 'never'.

DSK


There would be checks in place. For example, I work in the finance industry.
We deal with trades. Each of these trades could be executed in real time,
and you could make a lot of money if you were to do any of the fraudulent
things possible. The SEC does not review each trade, you have compliance
officers in each firm that do. You have spot audits and then you have
history. With these checks and balances it's really easy to find insider
traders, and people that do things they are not supposed to.

So I would use a similar checks and balances system here. Judges would be in
the know on all matters, including secret and top secret files. They would
all know what the other judges are approving. They would also keep a list of
agents or agencies that seem to be over doing certain searches, etc.