Reason magazine: on Homeland Security
Arvin Vohra:
Intelligently rethink overall military spending
Libertarian Party vice-chair Arvin Vohra calls Obama out on ignoring here the expensive and destructive Drug War, and his hypocrisy on Internet informational privacy while running, and defending, a universal surveillance state, and his refusal to
intelligently rethink overall military spending and postures while talking up a supposedly more intelligent form of constant foreign military intervention.
Source: Reason Mag.: Libertarian response to 2015 State of the Union
Jan 20, 2015
Bob Barr:
Loud Congressional critic of government’s abuses of power
In his eight years in Congress (he failed to win re-election in 2002), Barr was one of Washington’s loudest critics of the federal government’s abuses of power, taking the lead in investigating the raid on
Waco and in opposing Bill Clinton’s efforts to undermine due process in terrorism cases. Since leaving Congress, Barr has taken an advisory post with the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and started writing a column for Atlanta’s alternative weekly Creative Loafing--neither ordinarily a haven for Republicans.
While many on the right have fallen behind the Bush administration even as it betrays their purported principles, Barr represents another set of conservatives’ growing discomfort with the administration’s erosion of individual liberty.
Source: Jesse Walker, in Reason Magazine, “right wing of the ACLU”
Dec 1, 2003
Bob Barr:
Regrets voting for the USA PATRIOT Act
Q: You complained that “the attorney general spends his time and prestige traveling the heartland to sow fear and to endeavor to limit public discourse over the most basic of our freedoms.” When the Senate confirmed Attorney General John Ashcroft, did yo
ever expect to be describing him like that?A: No. This has been something that I never would have anticipated two and a half years ago.
Q: Do you regret voting for the USA PATRIOT Act?
A: I do. I was hoping at the time that it would not be used as
a floor but as a ceiling. But it’s been a taking-off point for expanded authority in a number of areas. Perhaps most important is the fact that the administration seems to be pushing its application as broadly as it can in nonterrorism cases.
And despite the assurances by the administration that Section 215, which relates to obtaining records from libraries and other repositories, is not being used, the fact is it is being used.
Source: Jesse Walker, in Reason Magazine, “right wing of the ACLU”
Dec 1, 2003
Bob Barr:
Matrix system and TIA are privacy-invasive programs
The USA PATRIOT Act has become much more problematic because it’s part of a growing list of privacy-invasive government programs, such as TIA [Terrorism Information Awareness]. They changed the name [from Total Information Awareness] and John
Poindexter has left the Defense Department, but I’ve seen nothing that indicates to me proof that TIA is absolutely dead with a stake driven through its heart and burned and its head cut off, which is how
Steve Forbes used to describe what we needed to do with the IRS. So my presumption is that it in some form or fashion is continuing.We have now the emergence of the CAPPS II system--the airline passenger profiling system. We have, apparently, a
number of state efforts that are being funded by the federal government, such as the one that just came to light called the Matrix system, down in Florida, where the feds are providing grant monies to state agencies to set up programs similar to TIA.
Source: Jesse Walker, in Reason Magazine, “right wing of the ACLU”
Dec 1, 2003
Bob Barr:
Military tribunals ok, if monitored & defined
Q: You started out sympathetic to civil libertarian concerns about trying terrorists before military tribunals, but ended up endorsing the idea. What changed your mind?A: The administration, in that instance, seemed to listen to a number of the
criticisms that we made. It made some fairly substantial changes to the way they were going to carry out the tribunals. There are two concerns that I continue to have. One is that the administration can change its mind at any time. You’ve got to monitor
it and make sure nobody backslides. The second is that I don’t think we’ve seen a consistent standard exercised by the administration in deciding when to use military tribunals. That’s bothersome. If you use it in an appropriate setting--a military
setting, in the context of an active conflict--and you have an enemy combatant, a military tribunal with its accelerated procedures lends itself to a wartime scenario. But the government really needs to have an articulated, consistent standard.
Source: Jesse Walker, in Reason Magazine, “right wing of the ACLU”
Dec 1, 2003
Gary Johnson:
Drone strikes create more terrorists
Q: How would a Libertarian president respond to the terrorist attacks in Paris?A: The only way a libertarian will act military is by being attacked, and we've been attacked. I oppose boots on the ground, but you can't rule out military intervention
categorically.
Q: What does that mean? Drone strikes?
A: When it comes to drones, I think it makes a bad situation even worse. We end up killing innocents and fueling hatred as opposed to containing it. It just hasn't worked. We need to educate
ourselves on the root causes of this, which is Islamic terrorism and the ideology of sharia law. In this country, we've become so politically correct that in the name of freedom of religion we have allowed sharia law and its adherents to advance. We need
to differentiate between freedom of religion and the politics of sharia law. Freedom of religion, absolutely. But if you're talking about allowing sharia law that runs contrary to the US Constitution, that is ideologically the war that we need to take on
Source: Reason Magazine, interview by Anthony L. Fisher
Nov 19, 2015
Libertarian Party:
Intelligently rethink overall military spending
Libertarian Party vice-chair Arvin Vohra calls Obama out on ignoring here the expensive and destructive Drug War, and his hypocrisy on Internet informational privacy while running, and defending, a universal surveillance state, and his refusal to
intelligently rethink overall military spending and postures while talking up a supposedly more intelligent form of constant foreign military intervention.
Source: Reason Mag.: Libertarian response to 2015 State of the Union
Jan 20, 2015
Martin O`Malley:
More stringent cybersecurity; supports PATRIOT Act
On questions of homeland security, O'Malley has called for more intelligence-sharing among American cities, for more stringent cybersecurity, and for "community partnerships to counter violent extremism," among other measures. Earlier this year, as
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) played hardball during the debate over renewing the PATRIOT Act, O'Malley warned that Paul's "obstructionism" could make us "less safe."
Source: Reason magazine on 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 13, 2015
Page last updated: Dec 24, 2023