Look who said THIS!

This is the title of a magazine article from USIA JOURNAL ----------- "KEEP BIG BROTHER'S HANDS OFF THE INTERNET" from October 1997 written by, guess who? John Ashcroft. Yep, the same John Ashcroft who has been leading the charge for stripping Americans of their privacy on the Internet. If you want to read the article - here 'tis:
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/1097/ijge/gj-7.htm

Remember, written in 1997, he was bashing the Clinton Administration. I guess he thinks it's okay if a Republican administration wants to do it. And it's not like there weren't threats every bit as serious as what the perps of 9-11 did before then. Runaway nukes from the former Soviet Union, a domestic terrorist had just taken down the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City a year and a half earlier, there were rumors of active militia movements planning assaults.

Here are the four versions of the bill that deal with "Cyber Security": http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:hr3482: or officially, "the Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2002".

A GREAT editorial from the Gainesville Times:
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20021125/opinion/443603.html

Try reading Ashcroft's article from '97 and then the editorial from the Gainesville Times. Try to reconcile that this is the same man we're talking about.

So, what changed the mind of John Ashcroft?

Brings to mind the old adage, "As long as the ba**ard is OUR ba**ard."

John
Luv2BSecure

 

John.That's very interesting!It's really strange how someone can change his mind in 5 years.I hope my Uncle(he's a Democratic)doesn't hear about this article! I'd never hear the end of it.And I wouldn't have a leg to stand on in that conversation.I wonder what the choices will be in '04?I know who I will NOT vote for next time around!

 

That's Politics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

{Politics give me gruntgroids

What I don't understand is of the 22 agencies that are merging and sharing info, the FBI and CIA are not on that list.
ummmm DUH? aren't those two the most important ones that should be sharing? Why don't they like to share? I am guessing they would like their privacy to be kept , why then wouldn't we, The People?
ummm DUH? who is it we always hear has lost a few laptops or hard drives?
Oh yea, some of that info was givin to China. What wasn't giving willingly to the Chinese was taken wasn't it?
Now why did you have to get me going again? grrrrrrr }

 

Sorry, Controler. You actually made some very good points even if it didn't have to do with John Ashcroft's two faces when it comes to the Internet. Just take a deep breath, count to ten, and pick up "1984" again and continue reading what a prophet Orwell really was.

John
Luv2BFree

 

Of course that what Ashcroft thinks!! And this administration has been good in its attempt to convince Americans that they are unpatriotic if they don't support everything Bush wants. Unfortunately, most people don't look at issues and beliefs they look at labels. All you have to do to get elected in most of the South is to say "I'm a God-fearing conservative, church going Republican." Until issues and beliefs matter more than labels...........

 

I agree 100%. If you look at the issues we're concerned with here (Internet privacy and security) -- labels mean NOTHING! You've got conservative Bob Barr going to work for the ACLU to lead their privacy campaign, Dick Armey is considering a consulting arrangement with the ACLU and Henry Hyde the arch-conservative from Illinois just days ago said in a speech that he had a "new appreciation for the ACLU," saying, (and this really is worth reading)

"I look now, as I see liberty in my own country under siege by our own government, and thank God for the American Civil Liberties Union. I have faced you down on many issues. On many issues, we might still disagree. But I have a new acceptance at my ripe old age of the literal interpretation of the constitution and that courts should use supporting documents from our founding fathers in decisions regarding constitutional matters. We can never take freedom for granted. We can never allow a snowball of an opening into violating the individual rights of everyone , for any reason for it only becomes an avalanche. An avalanche that can bury us all and in an attempt to become "secure" - we become enslaved."

" Today, I see that the work of the ACLU has been work of prophetic patriotism for all this country stands for. I introduced the Comprehensive Antiterrorism Act of 1995 and today, I would vote against my own bill until many provisions were removed. It was the son of the USA Patriot Act, which if I knew then what I know now, in how it would be abused, I would have opposed it with everything I have. Freedom is something you cannot take away and trade for security. It's been tried before in the USSR and other places where there was little to fear in the way of social security, but the price was the handing over of liberties, any kind of privacy, and their rights as an individual. We are currently in the process of doing to freedom in America, what terrorists could not do on September 11th of 2001 or any other day of the year."

" My friends Bob Barr, Dick Armey, Dennis Kucinich and others from all walks of life, and all political persuasions will be getting together after the first of the year to draft a statement of dissent against many portions of my 1995 bill, the USA Patriot Act, the office of Total Information Awareness and other programs which threaten privacy on the Internet, in our homes, at work, and anywhere else; because we cannot check our fundamental freedoms as Americans in at any door, for any reason. Again, my thanks to Nadine Strossen, the fighting President of the ACLU, for the invitation to be here today and to offer a belated 'thank you' for supporting freedom. I wish all Americans and I wish all of my colleagues would read an ACLU handout titled, "Freedom Is Why We're Here." I found it enlightening and very simple for a man of my age to not see the many truths expressed in that brochure many years ago. As I said, we'll disagree again I'm sure on certain matters, but America is a better place today and freedom has prospered longer because of the work of the American Civil Liberties Union. Together, we will fight for our civil liberties; and I promise you this, I will do whatever I can to make sure there is no further erosion of our civil liberties in the current assault on our personal privacy, Internet privacy, judicial outrage, discriminating practices that are close to what we did to the Japanese in our country during World War II, to fight for the personal liberties that are being proposed to be stripped and to restore those taken away. Freedom, is nothing more than individual civil liberties being respected at all times. If you have that, you have freedom. You take away those liberties without it looking like that is what you are doing, and we lose our freedoms one little piece at a time, it doesn't take long before we say, "Remember when we were truly free?" Freedom. Never, never, never, never, never take it for granted. Thank you all. " I found that handout he mentioned as an Acrobat file at:
http://www.aclu.org/Files/OpenFile.cfm?id=10740

John
Luv2BSecure