Nutballs have always been around. Previous administrations didn’t put them in charge.
Members have so many more choice nowadays: car,
town house, country club, vacations, lobbying career - oh yeah,
Constitution?
In 1950, 12 days after the start of the Korean War,
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan “to apprehend and detain persons
who are potentially dangerous to the internal security
of the country” — thousands of them, almost all American
citizens.
Hoover submitted the plan to President Harry Truman’s special consultant for military and foreign affairs, Adm. Sidney Souers — who had been the first director of the nascent Central Intelligence Agency in 1946 — and to Souers’ successor as Truman’s top security aide, James Lay.
According to the plan, the United States was to round up suspects, detain them at federal prisons or military facilities and eventually allow them a hearing that would not be bound by the rules of evidence.
Author Ronald Kessler said he sees a big difference between that plan and the detention of suspected terrorists now. Kessler has penned several books about the FBI, including “The Bureau.”
“The court has allowed all the measures that the Bush administration has used to find terrorists to continue,” he said. “Congress has allowed all the measures to continue as well. So it’s quite a contrast with the days of J. Edgar Hoover.”
Back in the day, other versions of thought police were overcome - with the help of courts defined by respect for our Constitution and [a few] members of Congress with guts and backbone.
Hoover submitted the plan to President Harry Truman’s special consultant for military and foreign affairs, Adm. Sidney Souers — who had been the first director of the nascent Central Intelligence Agency in 1946 — and to Souers’ successor as Truman’s top security aide, James Lay.
According to the plan, the United States was to round up suspects, detain them at federal prisons or military facilities and eventually allow them a hearing that would not be bound by the rules of evidence.
Author Ronald Kessler said he sees a big difference between that plan and the detention of suspected terrorists now. Kessler has penned several books about the FBI, including “The Bureau.”
“The court has allowed all the measures that the Bush administration has used to find terrorists to continue,” he said. “Congress has allowed all the measures to continue as well. So it’s quite a contrast with the days of J. Edgar Hoover.”
Back in the day, other versions of thought police were overcome - with the help of courts defined by respect for our Constitution and [a few] members of Congress with guts and backbone.
Posted: Tue - December 25, 2007 at 12:17 PM