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L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 199, November 18, 2002 YOU'LL GO BLIND!
LibBits/LibBytes
Yeah ... without the ATF, who'll do the up-front work to give the Feebs the "excuse" to shoot, blow up, and burn innocent civilians? - - - An FBI memo questioning whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms can handle major bombing and terrorism investigations is circulating as Congress considers whether to merge ATF into the Justice Department. ... ATF, it said, has a "lack of strategic vision" and has "crept into areas beyond their mandate." ... The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents 19,000 federal officers, issued a statement Tuesday saying it was "appalled at the unwarranted criticism of ATF agents and ATF expertise." "This document seems to have been prepared by someone within the FBI who is very ignorant of how law enforcement is practiced in real-life situations," the statement said. KIDS LINE UP TO GET DIGITAL FINGERPRINTS So, individual liberty in England rests solely in the hands of a desperate subject wielding "a high-powered air rifle"? How utterly sad! - - - POLICE SEEK CAMERA SHOOTER Police hunted for a marksman with a grudge on Monday after two roadside speed cameras were shot to pieces in rural east England. Norfolk police said a sniper, probably armed with a high-powered air rifle, riddled the cameras with pellets causing 70,000 pounds ($111,000) worth of damage. The attacks happened days before a number of newly installed cameras were set to go live at accident black spots in the area. "You often have to worry about the mentality of people who do this sort of thing," Bryan Edwards, spokesman for the Norfolk Casualty Reduction Partnership, was quoted as saying by the Eastern Daily Press. Speed cameras, which photograph speeding motorists as they drive by and can lead to substantial fines, are controversial in Britain. But police would not say whether they believed a disgruntled motorist was behind the incidents. - - - SUPREME COURT TO HEAR WEB PORN CASE The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide if public libraries can be forced to install software blocking sexually explicit Web sites. ... The case is United States v. American Library Association, 02-361. - - - On the Net: American Civil Liberties Union - - - HIGH COURT TO HEAR GUN PRIVACY CASE The Supreme Court plunged into the gun debate Tuesday, agreeing to decide whether the government can withhold information on some gun purchases and crimes, including details of database checks like those used to track weapons in the sniper case. At issue for the Supreme Court is the scope of a federal public information law, which allows reporters and other outsiders to get unclassified government records that officials would not otherwise release. ... "There is simply no reasonable expectation of privacy involved in the purchase of firearms. And the recovery of a firearm by the authorities in the course of a criminal investigation is even less private," the Supreme Court was told by Lawrence Rosenthal, Chicago's attorney. ... The case is United States Department of the Treasury v. City of Chicago, 02-322. - - - U.S. TO RANDOMLY CHECK CARS IN MICHIGAN A federal program to randomly check cars in a search for terrorists and illegal immigrants was being brought to Michigan, home of the largest concentration of Arabs in America. ... "It's all about homeland security. Bottom line, we are here to be vigilant about the safety and security of the American people," INS spokesman Greg Palmore said before a news conference Tuesday. New York, Vermont and New Hampshire are among the northern border areas that already have similar programs in place ... The practice of checkpoints is common in southern border states such as Texas and California. ... Since Sept. 11 of this year, more than 14,000 foreign visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria have been fingerprinted at U.S. border crossings and 179 have been arrested, Attorney General John Ashcroft said last week. ... The Justice Department also announced last week that thousands of men from the five countries who arrived in the United States between Jan. 1 and Sept. 10 will also have to be fingerprinted and photographed. - - -
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