Ref.
Canadians Monitored Chat Rooms to Catch Terrorists. Don't Terrorists Have 'Rights' in Canada Like They Do in the U.S.? Our Dems Should Send a Delegation to Canada to Protest.

For the millionth time: it's not monitoring that we America-loving people are worried about. It's the circumventing of the law and the courts to do it. There's more involved. It's about the rule of law which, it seems, is now only a concern of Democrats, and upon which the longest of long-term survival of the country rests.

Meanwhile, we ought to reflect on the value of law-enforcement as a tool against terrorism. The Canadian success is exactly what the real war on terrorism is about, at least in terms of government interventions: it's about intelligence, and citizen cooperation, both of which have been given more than short shrift by Bush, et al. They derided Kerry for pointing out the need for law enforcement (guess the Canadians didn't care), and they've so alienated the people who might otherwise help us gain information that they've made us immeasurably less safe. Bush's main problem is that he has no idea who the enemy really is, what motivates them, and what measures will in fact be needed and effective to combat them.

Canada man 'planned to behead PM'

There's the inevitable speculation about what on earth motivated these men. Unlike the London bombers, some did seem to have significantly troubled pasts - arriving in Canada as children and refugees from Somalia, for example. What they might have in common seems to be a kind of immature religious fervour - which was abused by the older man in the group.

As Sid points out, the arrests seem to be a success for ordinary - legal and constitutional - police work of the kind that Bush & Co have mocked and avoided.

Scotty,

Monitoring works better when people know they are being monitored.

Look at it as a deterrent - if you know somebody is watching you pick your nose you don't pick your nose.

Same thing applies to terrorism and crime. A crime is still not a crime until it is committed – the free world doesn’t make a habit of enforcing “thought crimes”. Thus one of the keys to fight terrorism is to make would be terrorists reconsider becoming a terrorists.

Further, there is a huge difference between monitoring what is being said on the web and the government keeping track of how many times you call grandma. There is a big difference between tapping phones (without a warrant under the Probable Cause clause) and just doing it.

We have laws in place to protect the rights of the innocent, wire tapping requires a warrant so policing agencies are held accountable of who’s conversation they are listening too.

If Bush can not work within the laws of the land then he will have to toss out those laws. If he tosses out those laws the terrorists have won.

quote:

Further, there is a huge difference between monitoring what is being said on the web and the government keeping track of how many times you call grandma

This wasn't happening, and it was never going to happen. Everyone knows what was going on here.