[link|http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040704/localnews/777400.html|Going where the government isn't allowed to go]

Excerpt:

SEATTLE -- Fort Lewis Army Spc. Ryan Anderson thought he was
communicating with a Muslim extremist on the Internet when he allegedly
asked if a "brother fighting on the wrong side could defect."

The 26-year-old Washington state National Guardsman didn't know his
e-mails instead were secretly collected by Shannen Rossmiller, a
small-town Montana city judge and amateur cyber sleuth who draws out
would-be terrorists and turns them over to authorities.

Anderson was arrested in February and now faces a court-martial on five
counts of trying to provide terrorists with information about U.S.
troop strength and tactics, along with methods for killing American
soldiers.

Rossmiller, 34, of Conrad, Mont., is one of an unknown number of citizen
cyberspies who, unrestricted by laws prohibiting entrapment, gather
information they say authorities don't always catch.

She said government agencies at times have little understanding
"regarding the extent and depth with which the terrorists and their
followers utilize the Internet for their means and methods of
communications."

Today she's a member of [link|http://www.7-seas.net/|7-Seas Global Intelligence],
a small group that tracks terrorist activity on the Web and passes the
information to government and military officials.

I say:

1. No complaining about the Patriot Act and Echelon and how Bush is
Hitler and all that paranoia. These are American citizens acting where
the government, restrained by laws, will not go. Got a problem with
that? Take it up with the citizens. Dude, it's our country. This is
simply Neighborhood Watch writ very large.

2. There are ways to circumvent this. No, I'm not going to elaborate on
that. This is an arms race, and I'm rooting for the anti-terrorist side.

3. This approach can also be used [link|http://www.nags.org/|against spammers].
Got a problem with that? Well, I suppose spammers would object. Free
speech and all that...

4. I believe strongly in free speech, as in, free from prior restraint,
and free from censorship. As to free as in free from consequences, that
depends. I'm willing to excuse a lot, but I draw the line at mass
murder plots. And penis extender ads. Okay, I might let the ads go, if
I'm in a forgiving mood. But not the terror plots. Got a problem with
that? Well, I suppose terrorists and their sympathisers might object.
Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a flying f***.


[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/#20040705|Home link]