Quote[/b] ]Who's constitutional rights have been violated?
The only ones I can think of that *might* have an argument are those here in this country receiving phone calls from Al-Quaeda or other known, outside of the US, terrorists organizations, and quite frankly I couldn't care less about their rights.
Gee, I don't know, EVERYONE'S rights. Anyone could receive a home or cell phone call, email, letter, from a 'suspected' person and/or country and become automatically suspect. Perhaps it sounds inlikely, but not unrealistic in these days of mass communication on so many levels.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Sounds logical to me.
And remember we're not talking just about foreign agents, suspected terrorists, etc., we're talking about American citizens, anyone that could be considered a 'threat' in an administration with a quickly growing definition of who constitutes a threat or is a terrorist, and then weilding their power with accountability to no one but themselves.
<a href="http://www.billofrights.com/the_patriot_act_and_civil_liberties.htm" target="_blank">It's a far-out scenario, sure. A wrong number and an anti-war poster and the next think you know your every conversation is being recorded and personal details of your life are being entered into a nationwide database. And then one day you come home to find people hired by people appointed by George W. Bush-remember Michael Brown?-inside your house, which you aren't allowed to go into. Sound farfetched? Orwellian? Paranoid?
Tell that to Steve Kurtz. Kurtz teaches art at NYU at Buffalo. After his wife died of a cardiac arrest, the Feds got suspicious of his art supplies. He was detained because it was suspected that his art supplies could be used to make bioterrorist weapons. While he sat in jail, every inch of his house was gone over with a fine-toothed comb, his computers were impounded, his wife's corpse was investigated, and eventually his house was condemned by the Buffalo Health Department. Later it was discovered that not only was the material that set off this alarm not being used for to make weapons, it wasn't even possible to use the material to make weapons.</a>
Not arrested, detained without any outside contact for the duration. All with no warrant, based on a 'suspicion' with no actual proof. That's scary stuff and I am sure there are other examples out there. How can you not see that as being blatantly un-constitutional?
And again, I don't necessarily think there is anything wrong with a so-called spying program based on a solid lead, etc., but a spying program run secretly, and with no accountability and no respect to the checks and balances of the branches of government, is a very dangerous precedent to set and accept as an American that doesn't enjoy seeing the constant erosion of our "gauranteed rights".