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It’s
Just Unjust
To
the Editor:
I
read, with great interest, David King’s article “A Time to
Fight” [Newsfrront, July 3].
As a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in New York’s
21st Congressional District, I wanted to add my voice to the
concerns regarding recent action taken in the Congress to
revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
I do not support retroactive immunity for any industry that
violates the law and I do not support secret courts. Judicial
power may be abused like any other.
However, the immunity provisions are not the worst aspect
of the FISA revisions. There are two major problems with the
new law. First, the new FISA revisions extend the time under
which the NSA may conduct a wiretap from 72 hours to a week.
No need has been demonstrated to increase this time period.
Second, the bill gives wholesale approval to bulk monitoring
of electronic communications (primarily email and phone calls).
This monitoring is based on software algorithms of dubious
validity that determine whether or not a person’s behavior
patterns suggest that he or she is acting in a way that merits
eavesdropping.
This concept, which is really a form of profiling, flies in
the face of our longstanding mandates of probable cause and
reasonable suspicion that require attention to individual
circumstances. As a civil rights attorney, I am aware of no
conceivable constitutional basis for this type of surveillance.
The recent revisions to FISA are an example of why I strongly
believe that we need members of Congress who will not only
challenge a Republican president, but who are also willing
to stand up to members of our own party’s leadership when
they are wrong.
Phil
Steck
Democratic candidate for Congress
New York’s 21st Congressional District
Colonie
Are
Too!
To
the editor:
The
City of Albany is doing its part (creating a Cadet program,
an EMT course in the high school, and other examples) to advance
the shared cause of increasing minority presence within the
ranks of the fire department. Presumably, David King’s article
[“Inequality for Dummies,” June 19] was written to help advance
this cause as well. His use of Sebastian Banks as the poster
child for said cause doesn’t help.
Christopher
Bovenzi
Albany
Oops
. . .
The
review of Doubt: A Parable [Theater, June 19] incorrectly
credited Adriane Lenox as the actress who portrayed Mrs. Muller.
In the Capital Repertory production, Mrs. Muller was played
by Kelly Taffe.
Metroland
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