Another US District Court has issued a ruling on the US National Security Agency’s surveillance techniques that contradicts an earlier District Court’s decision. The first ruling, on 17 December held that the collection of metadata on telephone calls was unconstitutional; the decision today held that the surveillance was legal. The ruling today held that the NSA had not used the data for any purpose other than to track terrorists. How the Court knew that this conclusion was true is beyond me–I doubt that the Judge looked at all the files. How the judge could predict the future uses of those files is also beyond me. There are reasons why the Constitution has a 4th Amendment.
The Turkish Military has issued a statement that it does not wish to become involved in the political controversy surrounding corruption in the administration of Prime Minister Erdogan. The statement was probably necessary because of the fear of a military coup like the ones that occurred in 1960, 1971, and 1980. Turkish memories of military rule are bitter and harsh, and the fact that the military felt obliged to issue the statement is, in a very real sense, disquieting–it reflects an assessment that the current government is near breaking down.
- Jackson Diehl is the Deputy Editorial Page Editor of the Washington Post and he has written an editorial which links the protests that have occurred throughout the world over the last three years. It is a very good essay, but he makes the mistake of referring to protests of the “elites.” I think he is actually referring to the middle classes of these countries, and using the word elite as a surrogate for those people who govern. The Washington Post is going to have to update its style book. In 2013, the word elite should be reserved for people who actually control large financial resources.
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