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“To a degree not yet widely appreciated, the federal executive branch, in the name of fighting a war on terrorism, has acquired comprehensive new powers to detain without charge, restrict public hearings and access to counsel, conduct secret searches, to spy electronically, and to obtain access to previously confidential financial business, and educational files.”
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“To an extent that has received virtually no attention, many of these new powers are not limited to terrorism cases and do not require suspicion of any kind that the person targeted by the probe is involved in criminal activity. And often these new powers can be exercised unilaterally, without the supervisory control and judicial oversight that was taken for granted until September 11. We can and must do better. Our first priority must remain a vigorous, proactive effort to detect and avert new attacks. But that effort is often undermined by indiscriminate attempts simply to compile more and more information for its own sake, as if we had repealed the law of diminishing reruns. We need to restore mechanisms that ensure greater focus and selectivity on the front end of the intelligence-gathering enterprise.” – Stephen J. Schulhofer
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