Here are just two examples.....Ever heard of CONINTELPRO? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPROAbraham wrote:I'd like to believe our law enforcement agencies would use such a tactic against criminals/terrorists and not as a fishing tool used arbitrarily against just anyone, cuz hey, you never know what you might find...
I want to believe the various U.S. agencies are ethical (obviously there have been exceptions...) and wouldn't use such a tactic unless it's necessary to catch criminals/terrorists.
Am I being naive?
It went on from 1956 to 1971, over four administrations. Given who most of the targets were maybe you're ok with it, but you should consider who's in office now and how government power without adequate constraints is easily abused.
How about this recent tidbit in the news: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39456324/ns ... al_health/
From the article: "U.S. government medical researchers intentionally infected hundreds of people in Guatemala, including institutionalized mental patients, with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge or permission more than 60 years ago."
Yes, these two events occurred 40-60 years ago, and one isn't a product of errant policing, but I'd pose this question: do you think the present government is more honest and trustworthy than the government we had when these things happened, between 1946-1971? To me, I just have to think TARP and the answer is no. So in my estimation, since we have a government of men, the potential for abuse is always there. It's happened before and it will happen again, and that makes it vital to have a system with good checks and balances that make it harder to abuse power, and more likely the abuses will be discovered. You don't find out about these abuses as they're occurring --COINTINELPRO went on for over 20 years, so who knows what might be happening now? You trust the Obama administration not to abuse power? I don't.