Closer to 1984 Than One Would Care To Wish?

Closer to 1984 Than One Would Care To Wish?
July 3, 2009 by coldwarrior

The Obama Administration has announced that the National Security Agency will be used to monitor internet communications between government activities and private users, according to the Associated Press, as reported Friday in the Washington Post. To be fair, the project was first initiated by the Bush administration, and was to be put into effect this past February.

The aim is, obstensibly, to protect the government computer network from attacks from outside, the Post said quoting Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
From the article, “We absolutely intend to use the technical resources, the substantial ones, that NSA has. But… they will be guided, led and in a sense directed by the people we have at DHS.” Napolitano said.

The goal is to make sure that internet traffic coming in to government sites is screened to make sure it doesn’t contain malicious programs. The spate of Chinese-origin attacks on federal websites over the past few years prompted the initial Bush Administration program.

But, I have to wonder how long it will take the civil libertarians to start making hay with this announcement and the program itself.

In any case, when you send an e-mail to a .gov site, or to a federal employee at his workstation or work e-mail account, your e-mail may be monitored, recorded and analyzed. The question is, how is this different from that sort of warrantless “monitoring” of internet communications between users in the US and known or suspected terrorist-related organizations overseas that was the subject of so much angst by the ACLU and the Left in general a few years ago?

Another step toward identifying and isolating domestic terrorists…you know, gun clinging, Bible toting, veterans and other dangerous elements…according to the aborted DHS report to law enforcement this past Spring?

One has to wonder what the parameters of such a program will be, and, almost forgot, when heads will begin to explode as to the Obama Adminsitration’s continuing another Bush Administration program?

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/07/03/closer-to-1984-than-one-would-care-to-wish/