Too sharp

Chi Trib had no room for this rather good comment, which is a shame:

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Dear Voice of the People:        “Irresponsible editorial - a challenge to print the truth"   

 

     Your editorial of May 12, “The NSA has your number,” was both irresponsible and “stuck on stupid.”  The one thing I have admired most about  the Tribune in the past year was its support of America’s on-going and world-wide war against terrorism, whether it be in Afghanistan, Iraq or in other terror hot spots across the world.  With your  May 12th editorial, you have gone wobbly and have shattered and squandered your credibility at a time when newspaper readership is declining.
 
     In perusing alternate news sources, I found several unreported and misstatement of facts in the initial 5/11 USA  Today news account--and in your opposition 5/12 Tribune Editorial--which detailed the NSA use of a database of telephone records to analyze calling patterns to detect and track suspected terrorist activities.  Missed facts included:

 

        1. The NSA story is not a new one.  For all its hype, it first appeared in the New York
            Times in Dec. of ‘05 as leaked, classified information.
            
        2.  No eaves dropping, trolling or wire tapping of American citizens was involved. 

 

        3.  The innocuous telephone database used was minus names, addresses and other
             personal information.
      
        4.  Statistical data mining  (The use of  formulas and computers to assess patterns of
             activity.) is routinely used by many businesses across America.
 
        5.  President Clinton signed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
             In 1994.  This law made clear the “duty” of phone companies to cooperate in
             the interception of communications for law enforcement purposes and other

             purposes.  It also authorized $500 million in taxpayer funds to reimburse phone

             companies for equipment to access call-identifying information.  Did Hillary not talk

             with Bill?

 

     In that I have always considered the Tribune to be strong on issues of national defense, I am saddened that the Trib has opted to be critical of a program that was only meant to connect the dots.  For how can dots be connected in catching terrorists before they strike, if there are no dots to connect?   Might the Tribune’s rejection of such a worthy program have to do with its objection to the pending nomination of General Michael Hayden as the new director of the CIA?  I hope not. 

 

     With so much of the mainstream media being “in bed” with the Democratic Party, I hope the Tribune has not caught the “hate Bush and everything he stands for” disease.    For if this disease is left unchecked and millions of Americans are likewise infected, the assured outcome is that our enemy will be infused with American-inspired aid and comfort.

 

     Instead of revealing to terrorists across the globe what America is doing to defeat them (Leaked classified information is now in vogue along with biased planted stories and doom and gloom reporting.), might it make more sense for the mainstream media to assist in America’s war against terror through responsible and accurate journalism?  America’s future is precarious.  The American people will suffer if the ideals that made America great are no longer respected or deemed worthy to fight and to die for.  

Sincerely yours,

Nancy J. Thorner     331 E. Blodgett Avenue, Lake Bluff, IL  60044   (847) 295-1035

 

P.S.  Steve Chapman is one member of your Tribune’s editorial board who is deserving of the label “stuck on stupid” as witnessed by his 5/14 commentary:  “A nation of suspects in land of the free.”  The last sentence in  Chapman’s  commentary was especially revealing of his stupidity:  ”And you might care that one day, we may find that the free society we claim to cherish has become a police state.”  My response to Mr. Chapman is:   If America does not have programs to locate terrorists, America’s future might  involve a police state, not of its own making, but one imposed upon America by outside invaders.