<story><title>Why Isn&apos;t the Fourth Amendment Classified as Top Secret?</title><url>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/why-isnt-the-fourth-amendment-classified-as-top-secret/284439/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>DannyBee</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve read a lot of what Stewart Baker has written over the years in his various capacities, and i&amp;#x27;ve just never been impressed with either his logic, or his arguments.&lt;p&gt;He really really doesn&amp;#x27;t get it, and seems to not be able to follow the logic of his arguments through to their end result (often claiming that those end results just won&amp;#x27;t happen, despite actual evidence to the contrary).&lt;p&gt;For example, he doesn&amp;#x27;t see how (and has in the past denied) his idea of having secret overseers made of a special class of citizens may resultin a star chamber, despite &lt;i&gt;this actually happening multiple times in the past&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;He also doesn&amp;#x27;t understand that his techniques are simply ineffective.  Keeping surveillance and its limits secret has not stopped anything from happening. It&amp;#x27;s just caused it to be abused along the way.  The &amp;quot;good terrorists&amp;quot; (in the sense of being good at terrorism, not morality) were already taking literally every precaution anyway, because they have to assume the worst.  This is true whether they know they are being surveilled or not.&lt;p&gt;For a small government conservative, he is one of the most paternalistic people i&amp;#x27;ve seen in a long time when it comes to intelligence.    For example, he was responsible for forcing everyone else to provide incoming passenger details to the US, then, on the side, repudiated most of the US obligations to protect the info.&lt;p&gt;He also strongly believes 9&amp;#x2F;11 was an intelligence failure, but of &amp;quot;the FBI was required to follow too many laws, and wasn&amp;#x27;t allowed to use invasive modern technologies&amp;quot; type.&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing6/witness_baker.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.9-11commission.gov&amp;#x2F;hearings&amp;#x2F;hearing6&amp;#x2F;witness_bake...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;(&amp;quot;In my view, there were two problems – a problem with the tools our agencies were able to use and a problem with the rules they were required to follow.&amp;quot;)</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Isn&apos;t the Fourth Amendment Classified as Top Secret?</title><url>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/why-isnt-the-fourth-amendment-classified-as-top-secret/284439/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ChrisAntaki</author><text>&amp;quot;Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Thomas Jefferson</text></comment>