In Heat of the Moment, Constitution Under Fire

I appreciated “Giving Up Our Rights for Little Gain” (Commentary, Sept. 27). Governments will often take advantage of emergency conditions to rationalize suppressive legislation in the heat of the moment. Remember the events following the Reichstag fire in 1933, which was blamed on the Communists at the time.

I am also concerned that there will be further beefing up of intelligence gathering organizations such as the FBI and CIA. Through the years, these have grown to unseemly size. This, in post-Cold War times and in view of their relatively poor recent record. Their inability to predict the dissolution of the Soviet bloc and the recent disasters in New York and Washington and the clearly documented involvement of the CIA in the Iran-Contra fiasco, in direct defiance of the U.S. Congress, are scandalous. We must tread lightly and move to protect, not threaten, fundamental constitutional rights. Were we not to, the country we might save would not be the country we have come to know and love.

Thomas Halle

Los Angeles

*

How can eavesdropping stop terrorism? If I were plotting to do a crime I wouldn’t talk on a phone. Where I’m from, if a cop sees someone doing something suspicious, he will stop the person and ask him what he’s doing. If the cop doesn’t believe him, he’ll frisk and even smell the person’s hands to see if he has done something illegal. Who cares about a warrant? The cops don’t, and I don’t blame them.

The only thing that I agree with Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft about is finding ways to go around the Constitution--with everything else I disagree. If the police, FBI, etc., have a person suspected of plotting a crime, they should just arrest him and try to get as much information out of him as possible. Search his place, go through his e-mails. I would rather have the government break stupid laws than have another building blown up.

Juan Salas

Panorama City