Technology and Terrorists

As if the USA PATRIOT Act and calls for a "Patriot Act II" are not bad enough, the Justice Department again demanded today that emerging Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services -- essentially telephone calling via the Internet -- be postponed until they are made compatible with digital wiretapping by the government.

This reminds me of the political debate over gun control, except backwards. Just as "guns don't kill people, criminals do," VoIP doesn't cause terrorism, terrorists do. The government should not take out its paranoia over over the inability of the CIA to get good intelligence on Al Qaeda by restricting the development of technology. Law enforcement has been trying to hamstring the Internet since the days of the "Clipper Chip" and encryption in the Clinton Administration. They were rebuffed then and these new calls to reign-in nascent techologies until law enforcement catches up adopt the same luddite approach. It should go into the dustbin of bad ideas.

 Posted by glenn