EFF Sues Over National Security Letters... But Can't Tell You Who Its Clients AreThere should be no such thing as National Security Letters in a free nation. Even gag orders should be issued only under extreme situations. The problem is that this country really doesn't value freedom, liberty, and justice. Instead we value convenience, economic prosperity and security. Which results in continuously diminishing freedoms.
Good article, but this comment is awesome:
Wait a moment while I try to twist my thought processes into an approximation of a paranoid government spook.......
The reason to keep the organization that receives a National Security Letter secret is that if the "target" uses that company and found out that they had just received a NSL then they would;
1. Know we were tracking them
2. Stop using that company
3. Stop using that method of communication, bank account, brand of toothpaste
[O.K. maybe not that last one.... maybe.]
Normally we [the government] would only keep this information classified ['gagged'] until we brought the perpetrator to justice [filed a case in a court of law]. New terrorist threat models [government speak for ignoring the constitution] require us to continually collect intelligence on existing and emerging threats [ a.k.a. people we know are bad, people we think might be bad someday, and people we just don't like, heck everyone just to be safe]. Contrary to terrorist apologists [a.k.a. people who care about the constitution] these National Security Letter recipient non disclosure [gag] orders are not permanent, nor unending. Recipients are free to discuss them, once the terrorist threats to the country have been eliminated [so that would be just like the legal term for copyright limits, forever minus one day].
See, that wasn't do hard to understand was it....[I think I need a mental shower now]?
LINK:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140303/11470826408/eff-sues-over-national-security-letters-cant-tell-you-who-its-clients-are.shtml