PATRIOT Act Being Used to Keep Super Duper Government Spy Operation Top Secret

[Octafish]

4. Privacy is not a constitutional right, according to Poindexter.

Among other things, Wired asked unadmirable Poindexter about privacy:

Is privacy a right?

It's certainly not a constitutional right. It's an individual right that has to be balanced with concern for the common good. Privacy has to be relative to other objectives - for instance, security. The greatest threat to privacy is terrorism. How much privacy was there in Afghanistan under the Taliban?

SOURCE: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/poindexter.html

Gee. That was in 2004. Wonder what's changed since then -- apart from the privatization of the common good, I mean?

Thank you for grokking, trusty elf! That Tom Ridge wink is something else.