Good, this is a great step to counter the spread of terrorist cells. If they don't feel as comfortable spreading their hate, it will become more difficult to recruit.

The American Stasi.

Like Bin Laden said, Bush will lead the west into the choking hell of tyranny.

It's about time we establish an American Stasi. We will also need quasi-deputized roving bands of volunteers to physically discourage treasonous rabble rousing whenever it gets out of hand. They'll know it when they see it. They'll need some sort of visible ID so we know they are officially authorized peace and safety maintainers. How about red, white and blue shirts?

WOW. Talk about Big Brother. Sounds like the principles of this country keep getting further and further eroded away. Everytime Bush and his cronies heighten the "terror alert" something like this follows. Is there anyone out there paying attention, anymore?

Where do I sign up?

"U.S. intelligence officers abroad can use bribery, extortion, and other patently illegal acts to corral sources into working for them, Aftergood noted. 'You're not supposed to do that in the United States,' he said."

Um, recruiting a network of undercover informants to spy on "terrorist cells" -- which is really just anyone we don't like -- is ALSO not supposed to be done in the United States. Does anyone really believe this will be limited "terrorism"? When the military in Iraq is defining any attack on coalition forces as "terrorism"?

This sounds like the state of fear that the East German Stasi inspired, or Saddam's mukhabarat. Informants informing on informants.

Great. Now the FBI can spy more effectively on the ACLU, PETA, Greenpeace and various anti-war groups. See the NY Times Dec 20, 2005 if you don't think the FBI could possibly be spying on Americans for partisan polical reasons.

Why don't we just address the real culprit of terror -- ISLAM, instead of imprisoning ourselves.

Good idea, anyone that opposes such an idea is a coward.

What has happened to this country.Where is our true freedom.We need a revolution now.This country scares me more and more every day.

The only way your scenario plays true is if the three letter boys target actual terrorists 100% of the time.

The remainder are fourth amendment violations according to their victims. Given the past, one cannot, nor should not, expect the government to always excercise its' intrusive powers in accordance with the law or Constitution.

The canard of those with nothing to hide having nothing to fear would better be served on members of the Executive branch refusing to answer questions from Congress, no matter what the motivations of those questions are, same as the black bag jobs you apparently support.

sad sad sad

This is a GREAT idea! These FBI heroes should also be given the power to execute anyone they suspect of terrorism. I am soooo scared. Please protect me Director Mueller.

Sure, it's a Stasi until the next terrorist attack kills a few thousand people, then "we should have done more to stop them."

It's a pretty simple view of a democracy to think that its essence and its ends are the absolute protection of liberty and rights for its citizens.

Rather, it is about the balance of liberty and security, in regard to both the lives of the individuals and the state.

When there are as many bad people willing to kill themselves just to kill Americans as there are today, it is only logical that the balance tilts more and more toward security. THAT is how Democracy works.

Typically a CI means that a criminal is left on the streets to practice their trade. It will be interesting to see how crime trends track with a mass recruitment effort.

The last time I spent any time with law enforcement speaking about the use of CI's, I was a bit surprised to find that at least half of the CI's were deemed completely unreliable since their main goal seemed to be elimination of their bosses competition.

In the end, it will be just one more hole in the dam of Democracy as the floodwaters of fascism continue to swell.

We are at war. Are you going to wait until they set off nukes in 7 cities at the same time, before taking "extreme" measures? Of course, it would be much easier to put cameras in the Mosques, and play it back on the evening news every night with English subtitles. You see,,,if we heard their message of "brotherly love" and "peace" more often,,,,maybe our distrust of Islam would dissipate some. (don't think that's what you will hear though)
***As we speak/type though,,,our heroic airforce fight/bomber pilots are having their planes fitted with super bunker buster bombs,,,Goodbye Nantanz a-bomb plant,,,,goodbye AKMANUTBAG presidential palace,,,goodbye ASSAD presidential palace. My guess is this will happen in September. God bless Israel and the USA, peace out!

Bravo! It's long overdue. It's about time we did something about poten tial terrorists and the left-wing apologists who want to "make-nice" with people who want to kill us.

Is the FBI going to indemnify these informants and cover any legal expense/civil liabilities when the informants are sued by CAIR?

Remember, if you report a suspicious Muslim CAIR and the ACLU will sue you.

The republic is lost. We are doing almost everything the Germans did before WW II. Everything the Romans did before the Roman Democratic Republic became the Roman Empire.

Dont fear for us. Fear for our children.

Dollars to donuts...this is being pushed by the ADL.

WHERE IS THE SIGN UP SHEET? AND WHEN DO I REPORT FOR TRAINING?.............

Does anyone really believe that if a Democrat gets elected in 2008 that they will shut down this program? If so, then you are naive beyond measure. Hillary would love to have this at her disposal.

It's about time! Like Phil, where do I and my city sign up?

I think I might get sick to my stomach.

The FBI, historically, is the group that routinely ignores information from the "common folk."

Why is anything different now?

I don't want to experience another 9/11. And most of all, I don't want my children to ever experience another 9/11. Let's not forget these people will stop at nothing to kill innocent Americans. The world has changed since 9/11. It will never be the same in the US. Do you think when we have a new president it's just going to go away back to pre-9/11. Don't be fools. Be smart, think safety for you and your family. Even if that means having informants among us. Folks, be happy, we won the OVARIAN lottery. We live in the greatest country on the Earth.

Whats the big dillio... if ya aint doin nothin wrong you aint got nothin to worry about... pedal to medal dudes.

What a bunch of weenies...there already ARE FBI informants; this report indicates there will now be more on hand to fight crime...that's all...thousands new law enforcement positions to combat crime and terrorism in a country of 300 million...

Of course, people here read out of context and cry, "omg, we live in a police state now". lol

Phil & Chris, calm down (or spazz out, whatever). Don't you want somebody on the inside ratting out individuals or organizations who want to kill your Mom, extort your business, or sell heroin to your 6 year old sister? No? Yes?

BTW, do any of you know how the democratic members of congress reacted to the FBI briefing?

About time. Those that talk about "Big Brother" are also the ones who whine about where law enforcement is after these terrorist acts. I would guess alot of this stuff is already done behind the sceens. Its time to make it legal and give Law Enforment the tools they need to keep us safe.

Sounds like what the KGB did!!

Read the comments. It didn't take the Uber Libs long to Whine about our efforts to stop Terrorism in this country.

Great! The lefties and the cowards are sure going to raise hell over this but every law-abiding citizen in this country should applaud this idea. There are too many goodie-twoshoes living in this country who do not full appreciate what this country stands for..Freedom and security for all its citizens. May God always protect our President, Mr. Bush..The democrats sure as hell do not want to protect us.

In our fear and paranoia... our generation has proven to be traitors to the fundamental principles of America.... No ideal or concept is so sacred that we will not allow the fear-mongers to trample it underfoot as we squeal to be kept safe from the great unknown.... James Madison muct have had us in mind when he predicted..."“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

I can hear the cry of the American Socialist Party (Dems) now - "Bush is listening to your party talk".

It's about time.

This was done before: COINTELPRO. Americans are walking to the gates of oblivion with eyes wide open. Orwell and the rest couldn't be more correct. The downfall of an empire.

i'm so glad to read that the United States is planning to abandon the old 18th century beliefs in liberty and pursue a 21st century strategy of security.
We can learn a lot from the last century's two great informant-societies that did a lot to root out terrorists and keep their nations secure:

National Socialist Germany, and Bolshevik Socialist Russia. We need more subjects (oops, I mean citizens) 'informing' on their neighbors -- and anyone who looks or acts funny.

The German national socialist party moved to secure the nation after terrorists blew up the Reichstag in 1933.
The Bolsheviks moved to secure Russia after the Czar and his ministers were assassinated by terrorists in 1917.

Does SS mean anything to you Americans that dont know history? Closer and closer to Nazi Germany!

No matter how one tries to justify this, this is wrong. It won't acheive the stated ends, nor justify it's means.

This is a good start. Another simple solution is to militarize the borders and end visas from select countries. By implementing these policies, we will be able to avoid the inevitable internment camps.

Not only is there a current book out about how badly the CIA failed over the years, now the FBI wants to become more of a problem.
Paid informants? If you pay me to keep the purple elephants off your property and a month later you ask me about them, what will I say? Do I say there are no purple elephants and lose the $$ and the job? Of course not. Paid informants are no good. And worse, they get people killed. Check on the botched raids listings from Cato. They want to fight the War on Terror like they fought the War on Drugs and the WOD is a failure that keeps getting people killed.
And as memory serves me, this is the same FBI that was all paranoid about "right wing militias" while the 0911 hijackers trained in Florida. Policies like this will create more resistance, and then they will use that as the excuse for more police state.
Many a poor sap who decides to go on the payroll as an informant might end up adorning an overpass when all this is done.

Shouldnt they have done this already? It took a 2004 presidential directive for them to decide HUMINT was crucial?

this is their job--investigation is in their name--they have no other purpose, task, role.

I'm less worried about the civil liberties aspect of this than others. We're talking about tips here, not full blown investigations and (covert)surveillance, which require a more formal oversight and authorization centering around probable cause.

I had some friends that were willing to translate arabic (Huessein's records, etc) after 9-11 and the regional FBI office never acted on my introduction of those who would help.
I'm a little stunned there isn't a network of informants in place.
Having been an informant many years ago, I can tell you one really has to pay attention to being fair and accurate. Problem is, with no informants (IE Circuit City Employee, etc) a ton of people can die. The terrorists have a great line... Protect my Constituional Rights (until I blow myself and half the neighborhood up)

Why not just have them wear red-white-blue armbands, and salute their FBI leaders? Are our leaders THAT ignorant of history? What is this - Soviet America? Nazi Germany? Make no mistake - this mentality is tyranny in embryonic form. I probably won't live to see it, but someday my descendants will see a US government that either collapses or is overthrown, peacefully or not.

Be Afraid.......Be Very Afraid

Ron Paul is our only hope.

CA--its not a question of "who we dont like." Its more like ferreting out "Those who want to kill us (civilians) here in large numbers, with some frequency."

this is the primary task of the FBI, now more than ever.
getting a bead on who these people might be, which is all tips provide, on an informal basis, appears to be no big deal.

it's odd how easily personal liberties can be swept away by well meaning bureaucrats. there are always small steps taken, if in slightly different contexts; with temporary retrenchments if there is the slightest objection raised. but there is never a move to permanently prohibit a particular bureaucratic act; thus, the same infringements are tried again and again under color of "changed circumstances", etc. i can see how a country becomes a totalitarian state and how good people help put others into ovens so long as most of those in the chain are not directly seeing the consequences of their acts. maybe there's nothing to be done.

Why don't we just start deporting people who aren't suppossed to be here?

Then we don't have to cry in our beer about Mohammed Ali Mohammed's or Juan Valdez's constitutional rights. If they belong here they stay, if not let's round them up and get them the hell out of our country!!!!!!

I say this sounds ok for the short term. When/if Hillary gets into office, the FBI will be doing even worse things than this. She and Bill have already demonstrated that and this will be worse.

Sweet, we get a Ministry of State Security full of pseudo-law enforcement, no accountability and free to abuse innocent citizens. Shield and Sword of the Party! Let's have a Stasi block party!! If the ice cream man sits outside my house too long playing annoying music...BAM! Call him in and have him taken away for terrorism. Neighbor sprays too much grassing clippings on my driveway...BAM!! Take him away for terrorism. Where can I sign up! But seriously, this is a sick, deranged idea.

it's odd how easily personal liberties can be swept away by well meaning bureaucrats. there are always small steps taken, if in slightly different contexts; with temporary retrenchments if there is the slightest objection raised. but there is never a move to permanently prohibit a particular bureaucratic act; thus, the same infringements are tried again and again under color of "changed circumstances", etc. i can see how a country becomes a totalitarian state and how good people help put others into ovens so long as most of those in the chain are not directly seeing the consequences of their acts. maybe there's nothing to be done.

Typical liberal blather...you don't see the good in the program unless it saves your ass.

The funny thing is that liberals in the government want everything controlled by the government, it's borderline Communism. But THEY aren't big brother are they? Strange how hypocritcal you sound.

Finally
Israel already does that.
Every Israeli is a member of their security and intelligence business.
Finally we are getting a clue: but I bet it isnt coming from anyone we elected

There is a definition for the word 'progressive', and this write up can be viewed as one of the definitions.

I think this is another PR move. With a
Dept of Justice, that only prosecute
Border Patrol Agents and sheriff dept.
deputies, nothing will be served. Congress doesn't want the terrorist or illegal aliens prosecuted so it will be all for naught. Some more spending of the taxpayers money.

Like Phil Sign me up too!!

Sounds like a great idea to fight terror, but like others I see a tremendous potential for abuse.
Would they have a children's program called Bush's Youth?

Thanks to Jimmy Carter, the gathering of human intelligence was minimize in the 1970's and we have paid dearly for it. Gathering this information is nothing new but we do need to ensure that the agents are well trained and understand abuse will not be tolerated.

You guys act as this is the first time the US government has set up a domestic spy organization. There is no government on the planet that doesn’t spy on its citizens by various means. So calm down, no one is going to break down your door just because… Here is a clue on how to stay out of any government surveillance program - Don't engage in illegal activities or associate with terrorist organizations.

What about having dignity battalions?
Lets get Cuba to train us.

Sign me up!! Hopefully this attempt to protect America will be the last straw for the elite Libs, forcing them to move to a country with greater liberties than they already have here. Oh, but where? Get with the program people.

If anyone finds out where we can sign up, I'll do it for free.

I think this is another PR move. With a
Dept of Justice, that only prosecute
Border Patrol Agents and sheriff dept.
deputies, nothing will be served. Congress doesn't want the terrorist or illegal aliens prosecuted so it will be all for naught. Some more spending of the taxpayers money.

how creatve. this should have been done
years ago. what a bunch of incompetents

Networks of government snitches are a hallmark of totalitarian states, whether fascist or communist.

Apparently a lot of Americans don't comprehend the bitter irony of adopting totalitarian tactics in order to, somehow, preserve freedom.

And no, the snitches will not limit themselves to suspected al qaeda or muslim terrorists. You could get your neighbor, romantic rival or old high school principal in a world of hurt with a well-placed call to the Department of Fatherland Security.

The southern border has been undefended since before 9/11. Anyone could have come in during the last six years. No acts of terror occurred. The FBI has been illequiped to spot terrorists. Still no terror acts occurred. What is the evidence that the US is under a terror threat? If spy capabilities are to be increased, it must be to spy on us, not them. Apparently, there IS no "them". Why should I pay for an agency to spy on me? Lets disband this soon to be internal terror organization.

I couldn't disagree with BigD more. Remember what one of our famous forefathers said, "Those who are willing to give up their freedoms for perceived safety lose both." Our great country is being led down the wrong road by an ignorant war mongering drone.

Sign me up!

ah. this must be a subsection to the Executive Order GWB signed on the 17th of this month.

This is a good idea. Informants brought down the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi after the Chanery-Goodman-Schwerner murders, and succesfully aided in the investigations into other heinous acts.
Of course, pro-terrorists and other cretins DO have something to fear. Patriots do not.

Great, maybe the FBI can also start a program where children can identify their parents as terrorist sympathizers or foreign spies. There is also a lot more the FBI can learn from the CIA now that they are working together to combat terrorism. These are great ideas. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before...?

Can you smell the facism yet Amerika?

And why isn't any attack on coalition forces terrorism? It is an act of terror to deter the coalition from proceding with any more efforts to remove extremists. And so what if it seems "Big Brother!" What do you have to hide? Nobody cares, none the less is going to turn somebody in because they heard you cheated on your wife. I don't understand why people are so paranoid over all of this counter-terrorism stuff! If it's just because of principal, than it's very petty.

Freedom isn't free. One of my favorite actors was a spy in Hollywood on subversive communist and socialist activities (now known as the democratic party). The key for the use of informants in America is to use conscientious people of good moral fiber, and outline exactly what they are to report on. Big Brother was around long before Bush ever got here.

Hopefully, it won't take too many more of these frontal assaults on the Constitution for the American people to finally get clear on who the true enemies of the Republic are, and for mad King George to finally understand that the Bill of Rights is more than "just a goddamn piece of paper".

Welcome to the "Rat Squad." As a former employee of DIA and NSA, I have a bit of a problem with this.

Sign me up! I have no qualms about ratting on some one is plotting to kill Americans. No problem at all.

Wow! What a bunch of overreaction! There's no pleasing some people. If they don't find people willing to cooperate to stop another terrorist event, you'll be blaiming the FBI for inaction. Stop being partisan and start being American! The lives saved could be your family!

It is about time someone realized that in order to win, you have to level the playing field. The "...we're the USA, we're better than that" crap has to stop.

That's like thinking the Colts would have won the Super Bowl with only 8 players.

OK - so lets ask a simple question to anyone against trying to build more informants? How do you get intelligent on activities across the word? Informants? or getting Lucky? How do you get informants? I do not think many come to the door of the CIA and or FBI - they have to be solicited....

No matter what steps the US takes to improve its ability to fight Terrorism you all will always find a reason why not to do it. Maybe when you lose a friend and family member to it you might change you mind. Or maybe you will continue to blame the US for their actions. I am sure you blame a child a victim instead of the person who raped them.

Let's start with the Democrats a terrorists favorite politician

>

I do. Our government has not lied to us - at least it has not for many years. The media have been trying hard to catch it at lying - and have failed consistently. Any such lie would leak at once because leaking official secrets
brings only rewards and no penalties.

>

The military are right. It is not as if the attackers were uniformed troops observing rules of war. And the very same people attack Iraqi civilians as well, bomb mosqyes, weddings, UN missions. Of course they are terrorists, and should be treated as such.

Duh? 6 years later they're finally getting around to building an intelligence network? Here's some tips, try looking in your local Saudi financed terrorist front mosque or "charity" group.Try acting interested and grateful when concerned citizens call you with tips and you start investigating and questioning THEM. Oh, and the next time there's a terror hit, maybe you should keep the family members of the terrorists HERE for questioning instead of flying them out of the country. Loose the PC crap and start acting like investigators.Oh, and you might want to talk to the State Dept. about them allowing 30,000 Saudis in here on visas-makes your job a little harder.

This will never be tolerated by the Democrats. How dare Bush and the CIA want to trick the terrorists by covert operations! And of course, its eroding away at our freedoms. Nonsensical thinking is the problem with the country. I'd be happy to know the govt. watches me, or listens to what I have to say. My tax dollars are finally being used on me!!

great, more innocent protesters rights will be trampled by this corrupt administration.

This is the United States. This is not East Germany or Iraq. In the US a program like this is made public and people like us have the opportunity to comment on it publicly. That should tell detractors all they need to know.

Feel free to express your comments, but don't put my family at risk by handcuffing those who are trying to keep us safe. And if you're worried about being caught, stop breaking the law.

cointelpro 2: electric boogaloo?

I wonder if the fears of intrusion on "the bill of rights" or the "big brother atmosphere" would change when one of these "tips" prevents the bombing of a large metropolitan shopping mall. Wake up and get a life. We are in a war against militant Islamists, and we should start playing the same game that they do

Why is anyone complaining? What what liberties are you losing?

Great. Publishing information about this is certainly going to help the FBI in its efforts to defend the USA. Keep it up, journalists. Think of yourselves and yourselves only and, above all, never ever worry about what might be best for all the rest of us out here for one single minute.

Just remember, George Orwell was not a great visionary. He was in on it.

I am sure some of the liberal bloggers would like to go back to the Clinton system of not bothering the terrorists in the United States. Hey, who knows maybe San Fransicko will be hit and the lib's can come running out of the ashes shouting (it's Bushes fault....we surrender).

I just wish Al Bore was president

Sign me up, I love my country and hate terrorists. I am a veteran. I don't want to see my family get blown up here.

David,

Maybe when your frined or family member is "disappeared" you'll understand our reluctance to this kind of activity.

The FBI already knows how to conduct investigations. The FBI info on the 9/11 attackers was IGNORED by high levels of the government - including the White House.

Perhaps if our current administration would simply pay attention to the information they already have, instead of making plans to spy on all of us, we might be better off than giving up our rights to privacy.

While the intentions are noble,
think of the implication if this
had been around in Nixon's time.
Does not anyone remember GITMO?
All anyone had to do was to denounce
his neighbor and the neighhbor was
on his way to GIMO. The denouncer
was paid $25,000. This is just way
too dangerous an idea. Please let
it die.

This is getting scarier every day.We are giving up more and more freedoms daily.We all know this to be true.From flying to opening a checking account.We all need to get our country and freedoms back.This is not a democrat or republican issue.The two parties are the same.We need to get back to our constitutional roots.

Whaaaaaaa...?

Here we are, six years out from 9/11, and they're only now *thinking* of this?

I'd assumed they'd done this *years* ago! How incompetent must these people be?

Wasn't it Abraham Lincoln who, when criticized for suspending habeas corpus, first observed that the Constitution is not a suicide pact?

So typical of the left to object that the "rights" of terrorists are being violated, while at the same time pushing for a renewal of the muzzling unFairness Doctrine.

I believe others have already tried this approach: East Germany had Stasi, and Soviet Union had KGB!

I think it is a great idea!!! They should set it up where we can inform on our neighbors and fellow workers. (Heck, why not even offer cash rewards for good info, after all, we are trying to protect ourselves from these terrorists) Don't forget to have the schools teach the kids to inform on their parents, too. Actually, I think Red China killed at least one person from each village to make sure that everyone knew they were serious about collecting intelligence, but, maybe that goes too far right now?

Goerge Orwell was right. Just a few years off. Others has tried this and eventuly failed. Like the Dept of State Security as one example. But then DHS is just a rose by any other name... All hail GWB.

What Constitution?

If you life a morally ethical and lawful life, you don't want your next door neighbor reporting you as a terrorist just because you've parked your car, or your guest has parked their car, on the street out in front of their house.

Bush and friends are ruining this country for our kids and grandkids!

American stasi, and you can see all the would-be KGB agents flocking around to get their 100 rouble bonus for turning in their fellow American.

Oh wait, he's not a "fellow" American, he's a lib. LOL. Oh, how can we treasonous scum not flock to the banner of surveillance and betrayal? Oh, we fools with our "bill of rights".

Interesting how many rabid "liberal haters" espouse view totally against the concept of America. They seem to have no knowledge of history.

They take pride in defeating Hitler, yet want a fascist state of their own. They extol Regan for "tearing down the wall", yet they want to build a new wall across North America.

Had to laugh at finding loyals americans of "good moral fiber" - what does that mean, white and christian? And which is the official Christianity of the USA?

This is what is done in DICTATORSHIPS.

And so America sank into totalitarianism, not with a bang or with a wimper, but with a cheer from half of its own dumbed down citizenry, more afraid of being killed by a goat herder than they were of losing their and their fellow American citizens country and their distinctly American freedoms and liberties, for all time.

Why did the founding fathers even bother? Any of you who cheer this on, should be ashamed of yourselves for being so ignorant, but you're too ignorant to know that!

DJL: You are nuts. What freedoms are being taken away? I really don't understand how this would take away freedoms. Some of you people need to get your heads in the right place. Go ask the Japanese Americans from the 1940s how they would feel about this. This would be a walk in the park compared to what they endured.

This is a VERY DANGEROUS PRECEDENT. First of all, the term terrorist or "terrorist-sympathizer" has become so vague as to imply ANYONE who disagrees with the president. Beware of what you endorse.

I think the question above is a smart one : what freedoms does this take from us? The answer is none! The FBI will be paying gang members and other rabble to give them information. I can't for the life of me see anything frightening about that! The only nay-sayers commenting here are quoting Bin Laden like he's Allah himself! Wake up! Allah hates Bin Laden which is why He is keeping Bin Laden poor and without toilet paper.

ABC News, thanks for letting the terrorists know about this. Good move!

This is an abomination of the highest order. Networks of informants for use by nationalized police forces (in effect the FBI under the patriot act) exist only in totalitarian police states. They have no place in a free society. We can either be free or we can be secure, the two are mutually exclusive. And yes, living in a free and open society means the bad guys will always hold the initiative when they decide to attack. For freedom, my family and I are willing to assume this risk.

Those who would give up freedom for security deserve neither. -Benjamin Franklin

Didn't take long for all of the conspiracy theory, 'George Bush is stealing all my freedoms again,' nut cases to come out of the woodwork on this issue did it? They really don't know we ARE in a war, and that means a responsible FBI WILL look for informants to assist them.

OK folks I think this is really really bad. Im going to vote Libertarian in the next election. This is not in our best interest

The real terrorists are those who create and enforce gun control laws in the name of stopping violence while hypocritically using violence to enforce such laws and who smirk while promising to provide safety to the unarmed in gunfree zones. ( lookup VA TECH for results of such promises)

How to solicit or coerce more local, state and fed whistle blowers???

I hope this means that we can start spying on the liberals at Move-On and all the other left wing loony democrats. We need to find out what they are planning, and make sure they don't win the 2008 election.

Superb idea! Let's call it "The Rat Patrol". Maybe issue some really keen decoder rings and big hornrimmed glasses with moustaches, fuzzy eyebrows and huge noses for those times when you want to sneak out in public to find some morsel of information to give to your handler.

Gee great....will ABC be publishing the names and addresses of these informants? Is anything confidential anymore?? You guys really suck.

My son.... US Army Counter-Intelligence specialist currently serving in Afghanistan said it more eloquently that I ever could... "Dad, I'd rather live in a free America, where a terrorist might kill me... than in a safe America, where the government knows every move I make."

How very . . . USSR.
Maybe this is a good idea but I am reminded of the paranoia in which so many Russians lived and still live.

We're all informants already! No need to create some agency. If we suspect someone is doing something illegal or possibly terrorist-linked, we can easily just call the police and have them investigate. But having an organization specifically geared towards spying on our citizens, that's not something I'd want! 1984 seems to becoming true in 2007!

We can never be safe until we are all living in fear of imprisonment. Nobody likes a snitch.

Let me give you all a lesson in terrorism...In a time of war, a great leader spoke out and said..."What produces peace? The distress of individuals...every possible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial nation" So the leader encouraged his countrymen to build ships, hijack the enemy's commercial and passerger ships, take all their cargo and money, take everyone prisoner...then keep all the money for themselves. This was extremely successful! There were so many terrorist acts like this (733)that the *insurance companies* of the enemy demanded an end to the war! They were taking a beating! So the war was ended. History lies and tells us that this war was won by Generals on the ground... no(!) terrorists won this war! This was the American Revolution and the leader was Thomas Jefferson. We beat the British with naval terrorism..hmmm.

Where is our perspective?

It was a Federal Judge, perhaps Hand. Lincoln was criticized for suspending habeus corpus when Congress was not in session, they can do it in the case of active rebellion or invasion. The President doesn't have that power.

And the Constitution isn't the suicide pact, that was the Declaration of Independence. see Franklin's comments on same.

WOW!! It is so true that some people (READ: "Progressives" - aka, "Liberals" - aka, "Democrats") have NO clue how to protect the home front. The FBI recruits informants to battle the Mob, and other organized crime, but can't recruit informants to battle people who want to KILL US! The funny thing is, the first people the Islamic fanatics will kill if given the chance are the very ones trying to "talk", "negotiate" or otherwise treat them like the misunderstaood folks they are NOT!! Its like Sam Jackson said in Die Hard: You people are going to get me KILLED!

Informants...to "balance" things out to show that the government isn't "profiling", various groups will need to be arrested and detained, possibly indefintely. We wouldn't want our country depriving any person or persons the right to be taken into custody, legal representation and maybe a little torture thrown in for good measure!

After all, whom among us don't know some "shady" character...not of our "faith", color, creed, language, appetite?

The line for "volunteers" must be rounding the corner of the fb of eye building right now!

FBI borrowing tactics from CIA- another example of intelligence agencies now being allowed to work together (again)- it is about time.

(I hope that those of you who responded negatively to this story do realize that your locations have been logged through IP addresses and the like... just kidding... you paranoid freaks)

In all seriousness though, I think the bigger threat is that the Dems in congress want to suppress free speech and opposing viewpoints through the "fairness" doctrine... talk about fascism.

We need professional agents prosecuting crimes, not amateurs spreading rumors. Many FBI agents go to law school, they're trained to make serious cases. The Bureau is no place for learn-on-the-job.

Great!! Let's allow the blood thirsty wolves to hire more of their kind to watch over & protect the helpless hens that they so love & wish to protect.!!!!! NOT!!!!!

Excellent... soon we will be able to cry terrorist against our neighbors if we don't like them or their politics.

GWB hands the terrorists yet ANOTHER win. Soon, there will be no distinction between us and our so-called freedom, and our enemies tyranny.

I would just like to say that all of you 'patriots' are full of it. Do you realize that you have better odds of getting struck by lightning than dying from a terrorist attack? Instead of spying on our own citizens, why don't we send the required troops to END the WAR? Because Bush doesn't want it to end, because he's doing a great job of scaring everyone into submission. We want to stop the terrorists right? Then why are the borders still wide open? You're missing the big picture here. None of this is helping anyone but the President and his quest for dictatorial power.

Two observations about the Left.

1.) They all would love to believe their thoughts are subversive enough to interest anyone but themselves.

2.) When criticising the current administation, they always harken back to grand old age of America. Yet, the "history" they espouse is full of contempt for the nation and its origins.

Yes, I've been waiting for a govermental agency to round up conservitives and those pesky "Army of God" types and put them in Gitmo as traitors to America. I'm starting to warm up to the "Bush Legacy" already...

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Amazing isn't it? Liberal Democrats, who are Bush's most vehement critics, are the same people who advocate abortion, gun control, and the "Fairness Doctrine". Oh, the irony!!

Just what we need - A federal law enforcement agency equipped with the "Patriot" Act and its own army of informant thugs. Does anybody remember Waco or Ruby Ridge?

I'm interested in a new career and that of Informant is intriguing. What I want to know is whether there is a fixed price for informing on people, or if a sliding scale is proposed: For example, do you get more for turning in someone who is your friend? How about a relative? Is there more for one of your children or a spouse? There really ought to be a bonus for turning in your entire family. What if the information you've given turns out to be false? Does the false informer get to go to a different prison or does he/she have to go to the same one as the people he/she informed upon? There's lots of questions here, but I'm sure the'll be worked out.

Another thought: Can't we export this new industry to other parts of the world? Granted some already do this very well, thank you, but I'm sure there are countries which are lagging behind and could use some guidance - it's a new branch of consulting.

The hell with protecting our boards, we can just have us spy on each other.

There aren't any terrorists, except for our own government, so this program will only cause Americans to turn against Americans.

Think about the Red Scare. Think about what happened to Cambodia when it's country was filled with ignorance and fear. Think about the Nazis.

This has all happened before.

Despite the best efforts of Fox News and the Bush administration, I'm not so crazed with fear that I'm willing to submit to totalitarian surveillance.

"Those who are willing to trade freedom for security deserve neither." - Benjamin Franklin

Between these proposed F.B.I. informants, wire tapping,police with hidden faces and badges,no more habeas corpus etc. our freedom will ring.
If you morons think this is not something stricly for the control of the American citizen when enough of us realize they took our freedom while we fiddled, you'r a fool.
If 'terrosism was a real concern here in the U.S. we wouldn't need a guest worker program to seal the borders they would be sealed in two days.
WAKE UP AMERICA BEFORE IT"S TOO LATE!

This is "Hilarious"!!! I never heard of the FBI hiring/recruiting informants to battle the "KKK" and they killed hundreds of thousands of Black and some Whites in the South. How IRONIC!!!!!!

This is the price we have to pay because half the US - political the left wing - acts in a way that encourages and emboldens our mortal enemies.
>
If anyone believes that Al Qaeda does not derive incredible moral support from the words and actions of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Russ Feingold, Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin, Jack Murtha, Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, et al. they must be smoking something illegal. Imagine yourself in Al Qaeda's shoes and see if you can figure it out. With the lessons of Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Somalia, it's just a matter of time and we should defeat ourselves, if the Democrats have anything to do with it.
>
If you want proof, then consider Harry Reid's continuing claims that we have lost already, the claims the surge was not working even before it had started and the weasel words of all the Democrat presidential contenders.

I was brought up under a communist regime. America is still a great place - but for how long.

Inch by inch we are moving toward a police society. Wait for a moment of crisis and all these "well intentioned" laws will make for a gruesome gestapo society.

The bane of the American people is to believe that it cannot happen to us. So my friend tell me: the checks and balances. Right! Woe to us for allowing the government to grow this big. We get what we deserve.

It usually ends in bloodshed.

Wow, only 6 years since 911 and this is what they come up with? Informants don't work because they often provide unreliable info just to get the cash.

I'm gonna have to get out my Jackboots and learn the Goose-step. Turn in your neighbors people. How about closing the borders and stopping these freaks from even coming here.

Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out obscurity into a dream................

Is President Bush really concerned about stopping terrorism?
Fact#1 The Palestinians were cheering in the streets when 911 happened. Bush wants a Palestinian State alongside Israel. Fact#2 Bush was in a mosque in N.Y. not long after 911 catering to an anti Israel/US congregation. Fact#3 He hosted the Prince of Saudi Arabia At Crawford(holding his hand for a photo op). Most of the 911 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Fact#4 He continues to use the term "War on Terror" instead of defining the enemy so that we can end the war. Fact#5 He wants open borders and our continued immigration policy imports potential terrorist or terrorist sympathizers from the Arab countries. He signed an illegal agreement in Waco for a Nafta Superhighway that will eventually de-throne our Sovereignty. Fact#6 The federal government is constantly using the "Threat of Terror" to encroach on our personal freedoms. Do we really want to trust the federal Govt. to protect us? We should not fear man but G-d alone. I can make the case all day that you have to look at Bush's actions to determine his real motives. He is pro-arab and pro terrorist. No one in their right mind would cater to these people like this and not be for them.

Back in the US...back in the USSR!

Republicans are nothing if not inconsistent. First, they say it is illogical for liberals to fear persecution by the administration if they are not doing anything wrong and aren't terrorists. Second, they say that the first use of this law should be against liberals who disagree with Bush's domestic security policies, because they ARE terrorsists. Orwellian double-speak at its finest.

Does that mean Republicans would agree with the widespread detention, de-facto enslavement, and summary execution of Stalin's political dissidents in the 1930's was a good thing? Of course.

Will you people stop all this republican and democrat crap. Both parties are just two sides to the same coin. Neither party has done anything for the American public in many years.
The only time they can ever get anything done it costs us more of OUR
money and or OUR freedom and clears the way for corprate America to abuse the American worker. WAKE UP PEOPLE!

I guess that’d be ok, there’s a very good chance THE RAT WOULD HAVE BETTER INFORMATION THEN THE PRESIDENT HAS access to, but what will all the FBI, DHS, or whatever redundant agency do with all those properly motivated, well paid, highly educated, professionally trained, expert agents or all that expensive equipment and costly infrastructure?
If we cut back on turning America into a police state do you think we could get a tax refund? Or is that money just lost? I worked hard for that money and it’s worth the least in 50 years (shout out to the architects of our society, our caretakers.)

Benjamin Franklin said it best, "Those who would trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither". I think we're about to get exactly that.

Cool, does that mean we get to spy on all those Christian Identity maniacs and the Christian maniacs who want to kill doctors? People like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols? How about the Jewish Defense League, them too…right.
I’m all for it. While we’re at it, let’s spy on teachers we have in our schools, and professors. We should certainly not leave out any person that belongs to a union and don’t forget reporters and writer, because heaven knows we need to control them. Sign me up, because I WANT TO DO THE SPYING; so no one can spy on me.

Does this mean that I can turn in anyone who is not speaking English at all times ?

I'm sure in Brian Ross' mind, he thinks he got a great "scoop". Here's news for you Brian, the FBI has ALWAYS relied on informants for intelligence in criminal and counter terrorism matters for decades and in light of possible terrorist cells among us, the fbi is fighting hard to keep idiot liberals like you safe. Yet in an effort to paint this administration in a bad light, he takes recent testimony and attempts to create a paranoid hysteria about "american spy's amongst us" and "big brother" republican government keeping your phone records. Don't worry Brian, your candidate(s) are doing well in the media spot light, thanks to you and your commrades media spin. Viva el revolucion and stay safe at the campus rally.

I agree Joe...if i was an unborn child I would view the libs as terrorists.

I'm sure in Brian Ross' mind, he thinks he got a great "scoop". Here's news for you Brian, the FBI has ALWAYS relied on informants for intelligence in criminal and counter terrorism matters for decades and in light of possible terrorist cells among us, the fbi is fighting hard to keep idiot liberals like you safe. Yet in an effort to paint this administration in a bad light, he takes recent testimony and attempts to create a paranoid hysteria about "american spy's amongst us" and "big brother" republican government keeping your phone records. Don't worry Brian, your candidate(s) are doing well in the media spot light, thanks to you and your commrades media spin. Viva el revolucion and stay safe at the campus rally.

This is great...but why in the hell do we need to advertise everything we do to help stop the spread of terrorism? I tell ya, therse damn investigative journalist border on treason in their reporting sometimes. Free country and all, but geeesh, some things are on a need-to-know basis!

I think Ben Franklin had it partly wrong; I don't think it's possible to trade freedom for security. Decreasing your freedom by handing power to a "protector" just means you're increasing your vulnerability to those offering to protect you in the long run.

To those who believe that the innocent have nothing to fear, remember that confidential informants have already usually done something illegal and are "helping" the government in exchange for the government giving them a pass. More than once, that protection has allowed them to continue to victimize others while their government handlers looked the other way. Other informants have lied, causing trouble for innocent people, in order to look productive. In one case, the police tried to get an informant to make false accusations incriminating a woman that the cops had accidentally shot and killed! (Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta; you can Google it, but make sure you look at the recent stuff, after the investigation and conviction of several of the cops. The early stories are colored by the police department's public relations efforts.)

Of course the FBI needs the American
public to do its job for them. Wasn't
the FBI told by one of its own agents,
a Ms. Rowley that arabs were learning
how to fly planes but didn't want to be
bothered with learning how to land?
So of course they ignored her.

It will be interesting to see how far we get to McCarthyism and the paranoid fear of J. Edgar. The Middle East Arabs, Iranians, Iraqi, and Palestinian leaders could give a hoot about this country. Any C.I. will lie to benefit himself. A total waste of time and money. My vote is back to "isolationism" and to stop boosting Third World economies. China will screw us just on principle. We need to support ourselves first.

if armed, arab looking guys busted down my door in the middle of the night then I could get away with acting in self defense.

But if a swat team gets the wrong address, well, it's die if you don't and prison if you do.

so who are the terrorists that second amendment activated citizens should worry about and want to see informed on the most???

Changing tactics by the enemy require changing tactics by our government. It's that simple. This is not the People versus Larry Flynt or some petty crime case in a local district court in Anytown, USA. The idealogical tactics used by the Imams and other hate-mongers can never be matched by our reasonably stoic government therfore we must adapt using all methods at our disposal. Since the leftwingers are adament about allowing illegals to stay in our country we have no choice but to blame the Hillary crowd if we do get hit again because it's their Bush-Hating liberalism that allowed the terrorists to stick around in the first place. If you think your civil liberties are at risk you are sadly mistaken. During WWII the lockdown on society was much tighter than anything we've experienced since 9/11. My advice to all the Obamanistas is to get a life and remember that a few nukes going off over the skies of Tehran is a much better scenario than a few megatons wiping out metro NYC. Spying on these terrorist types is a small price to pay even if a few innocent people have their conversations recorded by the FBI. If they're not doing anything wrong the Feds will just move on to the next investigation anyway. No problem found with this operation.

Can not sit by anymore. For all of you naive left leaning paranoid, pseudo intellectuals that worry about a Stasi and plots by Bush and his people to control your mind, I have a good suggestion. Why dont you set up a mega commune in a remote desert section of our great country, composed of the minions that feel that the terrorist threat is just "a bumper sticker", put a bulls eye in the town square and invite imaginary individualterrorists and or organizations, that you claim do not exist into town and let them use your people as target practice, with a dirty bomb or some other type of weapon which will kill thousands. Then the hundreds of thousands of you which feel that terrorism is not threat might just be proven wrong. Then afterwards we will build a monument for your courage and naivete to honor you for having saved millions of lives by sacrificing yours to save those of us that are pragmatic and realist and do really see a threat and at the same time prove that you were complete idiots. No doubt your survivors, if there are any, will be bitching to the President and the government, ad infinitum, for not having warned them nor protecting them from the "imaginary" threat.
Give me a break!!
Rex.

And who will "train" the informants to recognize significant info or verify that there info is valid--as opposed to passing along drivel so they feel like "secret agents' This is crap--the FBI receives calls all the time and in many cases never follows up.

Big deal. The FBI knows what it's doing and has always spied on us for our own good. Hoover was the greatest American of all time until Geoge Bush. Did you see where Britney beat up an SUV with her umbrella? Awesome!

(I'm writing this so when the FBI tracks this message back to me, it'll know I'm like totally apolitical, in fact an idiot who gets all his news from TV, and won't come after me.)

I see that some lunatic in this comments section is quoting Osama Bin Ladin as an expert on tyranny ---- perhaps as if Osama is some bearded and wisely-philosophical libertarian ---- instead of just a cheap killer with a gun and a god in his pocket. I find it interesting that Democrats are more worried about FBI snoops than they are about anti-American quacks like Bin Ladin. Oh, I get it, the FBI guys are patriots ---- and that's bad for America. I should have seen that sooner, huh?

Yi Ha ***
Minister of Information
Peoples' Capitalist Republic of Whizbangistan

*** Pronounced "YEEEEEEE HAAAAAAA!!!"

Ever notice how nobody mentions the IRS?
Talk about an invasion of privacy! Anyone who pays income taxes, and is not freeloading off the system, or trading in the underground economy, and files their tax return would understand. Their taxes pay for the spending that supports these programs.

Everyone who thinks the innocent have nothing to fear, please post your real name, address and phone number, which will then be forwarded to the FBI along with some really juicy terrorism-related lies.

What? You don't want to? Well, why not? The innocent have nothing to fear, right?

I can see both sides and I am a conservative. Question 1 is for people who fear this as a so called, "big brother." What do you all think we should do? It seems to me that we did nothing before 9\11 and then look, all you heard from people was where was all the security?

You make it seem like you have the answers but you don't, you do not think that far ahead.

2. for you people who have no problem with this. History does repeat itself and if you think of America as an Empire then we are falling as did the Empires of old. If we do everything that we are doing then we will completly lose our freedom. This is the sad truth. "I do not know what to do, other then hope that we do the right thing."

Hello! Just another visit from Big Brother. Before we know it, he'll be sleeping over and leaving his toothbrush in the cup by the sink.

This is horrible. Our constitution is being ripped to shreds!! Wake up, smell the fascism, and contact your congressmen and women to tell them to put an end to this domestic spying crap once and for all. The Patriot Act needs to be revoked and the Department of Homeland Security should be abolished.

The problem isnt the laws they create. Its the abuse of said laws.If they were used only to thwart terror i would be all for them. But we as humans have proven time and again that power corrupts. Wake-up! This is another example of a Tyrant trying to remove your ability to be free. Norm are more trusting of the Goverment than you should be. Turn off Fox news for a minute...and actually go out there and dig up your own information on these matters, then try something thats really hard these days for most Americans.....Form your OWN opinion. Stop this repugnant display of media regurgitation. You have believed the lie for too long. Ask yourself "what do they have to gain by lying to us?" To me it seems they stand to make an enormous amount of money. Not from oil.....from the military industrial complex...read about Eisenhower he tried to warn us what was coming. But we chose to believe the lie. And why not? Its far easier to be told what to do, than it is to think it and do it.
Tyranny needs more Americans just like you.
More suggested reading "Mao: a life". Then you can see how once America is sold out to the chinese what we have to expect here.

Yeah, ok... network of informants... in THEORY this is a good idea; but we're dealing with fellow HUMAN BEINGS here. People will "rat out" other people just because they don't like 'em for whatever reason. This is a great way to take revenge on someone. Become an informant, and just "rat" 'em out even though there's nothing to "rat" out... and whammo, that guy's life is over.

There's already a process for reporting suspicious activity... it's called... CALL THE LOCAL POLICE or the FBI with your little telephone. Simple as that.

You goose-stepping Stasi wannabees supporting this make me sick, and quite frankly, ashamed to be an American.
I used to look down at Cubans and Chinese and Russians for their shameful actions, knowing my countrymen were better, for they didn't just speak of Liberty, they lived it!
No longer. Now my own people and my own flag stand are no better than those - By our own actions we have become weak quislings that will are RULED by an elite.
On behalf of the brave people who fought and died to liberate this country from England and Tyranny, I spit in your face.

Classic Stalinist Police State Tactic.

I am a veteran and retired. I will willingly work for the FBI to root out terroist cells at NO cost! This is no different tnan a good neighborhood watch program! Where do I sign up?

I will gladly do it for free. And I would love to have a concealed-carry permit in case one of the terrorists tried to attack me or blow himself up around me.
Wake up America!
Go for it!

that there was a greater lock down on society during the days of the socialist president FDR, is not a good precedent for a greater lockdown during our days under the regime of Communitarian George Bush.
the snoops are already outthere, don't you remember all the tattle tale,
good German types from elementary skewl???? they didn't grow up and they vote democrat or republicans that is they vote Miss Authoritarian Repub or Miss Authoritarian Dem.

The Biggest THREAT posed to WE Americans is our own Government.

Welcome To The New Soviet Union.

All of you who sit back and do nothing will find that your own children will curse your name because you let elected servants CROSS THE LINE!

I am retired, a loyal american, and have nothing to do to keep myself busy. Where do I sign up??

Thomas Paine once said "It is the duty of the Patriot to protect his country from his government."
I don't think our country is going to make another 231 years!

you're taxes and mine do not pay to support the feds snooping and spying programs. all of our income taxes goes towards paying on the interest to the national debt. not deficit but debt.

hopefully when the first wave or two of baby boomers retire, the American economy will collapse leaving no blood for the huge parasite government (local, state and feds) to starve and fall off this long ridden dawg

Blah, blah blah, Bush is Hitler, blah blah blah, Cheney runs the government, but he runs it in SECRET...shhhhhh....
It strikes me that Bush is sooo dumb he can't tie his shoes, but yet he is sooo smart he can control world oil prices. Ever heard of OPEC ?
Blah, blah, blah, we went into Iraq for oil, but yet we are paying $3 a gallon for it....Bush was sooo stupid that he got us involved in an 'unjust war' just to please his oil cronies, but yet he was sooo smart to do that because with the rising cost of a barrel, it put more money in his own pocket.
Blah, blah, blah, Bush wants to suspend the constitution, our rights are being violated !! Hmmm, I can't think of one person whos rights are being violated, can you ? Hold the phone, how can an idiot like Bush convince the Congress, Senate, and the Supreme Court to violate the constitution ? He must be smarter than we thought !!!

It only took 14 years of being attacked by radical muslims for them to decide they may need a network of informants?

This proves once again that these spoiled rich-kid Ivy league jerks that occupy the positions in our government aren't even as smart as your average carpenter. I guess the silver spoon easy life doesn't tend to make people smart or clever. I think they had the same problem in France in the 1780's.

Anyone who trusts the government to do anything right is an idiot. Let the heads hit the baskets.

Oh heck yea! Glad to hear some good news. Of course the do noting cry baby liberals will hate it but they could always move to the country of their choosing that they give aid and comfort to.

'Big Brother' is watching you. Spare me. Been to a mall lately ? How about a car dealership ? No, how about a grocery store ? You are being watched, and it's not by this 'Big Brother' you are scared to death of. It's the owners of these places, worried about theft, and false lawsuits.
Do you realize that some places don't use video surveillance, but they use audio, and some merchants use both ?
Anywhere you go, assume you are on camera, because you more than likely are.

Thomas Jefferson is turning in his grave!

The authors and signers of our Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Constitution were tortured, chased and executed by a British regime that encouraged these very sameideas..

Welcome to the New Neo Nazi Amerika..

Disgusted...

Liberals love this kind of stuff. The Dems in Wisconsin have had their "agents" snooping and collecting data on non-liberals for years--and they defend it! What an opportunity at the national level: Let the Conservatives in power build it so that the Liberals get to use it when they get in power.

Read the bill of rights.The fourth is being violated daily.

Remember the old guy in the junk shop that Winston was buying things from in the movie 1984? This old guy was really an undercover agent for Big Brother who was trapping and reporting thought criminals. The FBI has taken another Orwellian step to convert the "land of the free" into the land of "1984".

This is a GREAT idea! I was reading about the Stasi and all the great things they did for the ungrateful people of East Germany and I was hoping that someday we too could have a way to denounce personal enemies and dissidents on hearsay evidence and have them investigated and maybe even dissapeared.
Can we can also have an incentive program set up so I can get paid for denouncing people I don't like?
One day, I want to be a Babushka just like the little old ladies in Russia and Cuba and spy on the comings and goings of everyone on my block. Maybe if I'm good enough I'll even make Block Captain!

"...the FBI expects its informants to provide secrets about possible terrorists and foreign spies, although some may also be expected to aid with criminal investigations..."

I have no problem in reporting suspicious persons or acts that could save lives, but what if it comes to turning in people like Anne Frank? How much of a "good German" are we expected to be?

I will say this again, "WHAT DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD DO?"

Kid Charlemagne YOU SAID "Wake up, smell the fascism, and contact your congressmen and women to tell them to put an end to this domestic spying crap once and for all. The Patriot Act needs to be revoked and the Department of Homeland Security should be abolished."

You and others who write this kind of stuff have yet to fix anything and that is the problem because no one knows.All you do is complain and sy abolish this and abolish that, you are not fixing anything all you are doing is trying to go back to pre-9/11 but we now have a problem. What can we do? I want to be safe but I do not want to lose my freedom, people you need to ask yourself this question; what can we do to be safe and fight terrorism and still have freedom?

Hey Chris, since you've decided you're now 'ashamed to be an American let us know, and I'm sure some of us who saw your comments here on this Board would galdly help you leave! YOU are what we don't need in this country!

I believe that if I were President of the United States, I would do like the demi-God Hillary wants to do, and send out 'special envoys' to talk to our enemies. Talking to our enemies always helps. If it weren't for FDR talking to the Japanese, we would have had a terrible war !

If we are in such a dire state of affairs, why are the borders wide open? Does this not confuse you? Did you know you have better odds of being struck by lightning than dying in a terrorist attack? I'm a conservative, and some of you conservatives need to remember what conservatism is: limited government, preserving individual rights

The Neocons deserve what they're creating, but their innocent children don't. We should be ashamed to be Americans. This should make us ~all~ want to vomit. It should trigger the gag reflex that Bush should've set off long ago. But it won't.

I attacked America on 9/11 because Bill Clinton tried to kill me
Bin Laden
in his
'Letter to America" after 9/11

All of you who cry "Stasi" need to re-evaulate your perspective of our national security. We're in a new world and need to act accordingly. We are fighting for our way of life--nothing less.

Good on the Bureau for being pro-active. To you who believe this program is trampling on our freedom are
the same individuals who will scream that the US Govermnent did not do enough to thwart the next terror attack.

Wake up.

Personally, I think the Republican Party should be declared a terrorist organization and all its benefactors hauled off to GITMO. If we don't do something and soon to muzzle the Bush regime, America will be nothing but a memory. The America of my youth already is.

The "war on terror" cannot be won. "Terror" is the methodology mixed with the motivation of an individual. How can you win a war against that?

There's only one way. Police state. Every person is monitored. Every purchase recorded. Every phone call tapped. Secret arrests and names paraded on news that the war is "in the process of being won".

The "war on terror" will end when everyone in the US and the world is completely and utterly monitored and controlled, by government.

But I guess that is just what the masses want. Better safe than free.

The founders and patriots who have died for the freedom of their fellow man would have cried.

Great! One more job Americans won't do.

A truly great idea.

9/11 was in inside job as anyone who looks into it knows - Fascism is alive and well in AmeriKa!!!

Who planted the explosive inside the World Trade Center??? Those are the real terrorists.

What a wonderfull idea, hire all muslims and there will be no terrorist left on American soil,Any thing happens will be inside job as had been in 2001.Being muslim I had been getting 4 x 4 ride,had feeling been profiled.Not I have added sence of security and feeling of being celebrity,I couldn't have bought it by my self. By the way close all AC wents in JFK as previous 4 Might had left time release Anthrax. Disinfect and clean thoroughly when you see me getting in to wash room. Take special care If I'm walking with a BB gun or riding a bike. I might be checked for possible shooting insulators on Power lines or throwing broken bicycle chains on Power-Grid Stations. Though I have left revenge of dead in Iraq,Afghanistan to Allah, yet in your interest it will be good idea to deploy one person on each power pylon.

A wise man once said "Those who sacrafice liberties for securty deserve niether"
We better watch out..bush is planning another attack on our freedoms and the only want he can take them away is to scare us with another 9-11. Then we'll all be begging for more security..thus taking away out liberties. OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE! PLEASE!

km,
US homicide statistics will prove out that my odds of being killed in the US by one or more of my fellow Americans in one year is far greater than any "terrorist threat" either real or imagined. In fact my odds are greater to get whacked in any given year by my fellow Americans rather than any "terrorist threat" in 10 years.
For my way of thinking, that makes the "terrorist threat" far less risky than the home land threat as the spin from the White House would have it.
Name your poison, however and fear what you like.

Yep, I agree with MR, the best way to fight this is to vote for Ron Paul in 2008!! Some of the comments here (are they really Americans?), I find just as disgusting as what the government is doing, go ahead, sign up and then be sure to get in line for your RFID chip, check your individual freedoms and liberty at the door...

Those who do not learn the lessens of history are doomed to repeat them. When the government takes away your right and ability to defend your self, and ask its people to spy on each other. What do you have? You might as well have Hilter, Or Stalin running things. Those that give up Liberty for safety deserve neither. What can the people who wish us harm do, when they pull out a box cutter, and find they are looking 20 people with guns pointed at them?

No. JIMMY JOHN...The name of the person who posts is at the bottom, not at the top of the post.
Believe me, I'll probably give you plenty to be hacked at me about without you having to give me credit or blame for posts I didn't submit. "Now calm down, big fella."

somone asked what we should do about the terrorists (who haven't done anything since sept 2001 cept some lonewolf act maybe) besides becoming more like Communitarian or "cold war" Russia.

well here's my list:
1. end any and all gun control laws and or infringements on the second amendment

2. if 1. is done this may not be necessary but shutting down those compulsory government schools is a good idea anyways. they're sitting ducks even with armed Adam patrols they are in danger as the massacre in Russia and even the one at VA tech should have shown.

Rothschild & JefferyBale:
I don't know if you were being genuine or facetious but both of your posts are worth the average person at least considering. Unfortunately too few people even rise up to make these points!
Fight the good fight!

I feel sorry for some of you dummies!!!..Our country is being taken over and some of you continue to argue about Democrats and Republicans when their IS NO DAMN DIFFERENCE between either of them!!!..Why don't you think about how your going to defend your family and property against this police state!!!..Were some of you the ones who turn in your guns for a gift certificate or for a little cash?? Maybe you better think about that and get yourself some protection and be ready to defend your Damn Country!!!

I am truly blown away at the level of fear that is permeating so many Americans.

Look folks, we are the best nation (or were) because of our rights, your desire to erode them for some false sense of security will be our downfall.

I have more chance of dying in the bathtub than I do of a terrorism attack.

Be reasonable, not reactive in a way that turns us into more like the Soviet Union than the USA.

let's see, our government compulsory schools, designed to undermine parents and make grammar dumb people like me, that are gun free and criminal safe places numbering in the the tens of thousands here in conus, are sitting ducks to the hordes of illegal aliens from Gawd only knows really where and really what that are pouring in from our open southern border.
think they really give a jackboot sheet about our safety from terrorists?? if you do, I just may have a house or two in the New Orleans area for yuns to buy.

there is nothing wrong with ameriKans being hyped up with fear and shallow oooh rah patriotism. It's how their emotions are directed that makes for good or bad. IF their fears and superficial patriotism can be manipulated into demanding smaller government that resembles the Constitutional Republic created by the founders instead of being used to create a leviathan police statelike commie "democracy", then good has been done.

I think the Clintons could have a heck of a time with this - think of their revenge on the vast right-wing conspiracy that worked to discredit them!

Oh man, we would know about every Republican who is zooming little boys and girls, and everyone that likes to wear diapers and have a prostitute change them!

As for doing some good for our country or world - well, not so much.

Had our great leaders, past and present, stayed within the limits of THE Constitution, we wouldn't have 90% of the problems we have today. Remember, the very people who want informants are the same people who were at Waco and Ruby Ridge. Do you want The Constitution or not? I SUPPORT RON PAUL!

This is disgusting and unamerican. Anybody who supports this better think long and hard about what you're really supporting and what's really happened in this country.

Disgusating, and you can bet it will be used just as the Stassi, the SAVAK, the Gestapo and every other police state netowrk of informants was: to settle personal scores and intimidate political foes.

This will not be tolerated by Americans who love their country and who believe in the constitution. Problem is, our country is chock full of misled, jingoistic fools, some of who you can see have commented on this page.

yeah! more fbi informants! then we can have more phony busts & provocateured patsies...

there were informants involved in the jfk airport plot, the fort dix six, the los angeles tower scare, the beheading plot, fake neo-nazi groups, etc. but none of these came to fruition.

but there was also larry potts at okc, ruby ridge & waco. then there was emad salem & john anticev at wtc93. and finally let's not forget the landlord/informant that lived with almidhar & alhazmi of 9/11.

Wonderful! So instead of securing our borders and ports by enforcing our existing laws, and focusing on potential terrorists, our government wants to create a police state. These people in Washington have completely gone over the deep end.

Buildings don't explode (9/11). WTC 7 must have collapsed in sympathy for the other two. No. Gravity is evil! That's it. Pardon my collossial stupidity.

I would like to inform on the past activities of one terrorist that operated in my town, no charge or medal needed. He was working as the city police chief and while in his role, he attempted to ban the open carry of legal firearms from law abiding citizens. At roughly the same time he merely slapped the wrists without cuffs of illegal aliens caught red handed, instead of deporting them they might have been provided with meals at local taxpayer expense. What have the terrorists operatives done in your town?

Ooooo! Oooo! Pick me! Pick me!
Are we lookin' fer somebody?

Relax everyone. Nothing's changing, only the numbers are increasing! It'll be painless and you won't feel a thing.

Anybody seen Nemo?

If you're hearing about this sort of activity for the first time, you've missed Attorney General John Ashcroft's attempt to establish 'Operation TIPS' back in 2001/2002. Just search the Internet under that name.

"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it.

They should have been doing this fifteen years ago, but a lot more comprehensive.Like organizing block to block monitors.We do this , and not even a rat could get through.Although i suspect they may be doing this to monitor American Patriots.Their more afraid of us than they are of any Muslem group.And don't forget this. kw

can anyone guess accurately what religion background the next terrorists come from?
How about the next strike in Israel? India? Pakistan? UK? Ireland? Spain? Philippines? Indonesia? USA?

Wow I cannot believe how insane you people are!!!! You actually want secret police running around ratting on everybody? You actually believe this is good? Whith as many ties as BOTH political parties and their leadership have to globalists and terrorism, and with the many admissions by the CIA(Google Operation Gladio) and globalist organizations the world over, that they aid, abed, and carry out terrorist attacks both foreign and domestic you really believe a bunch of nosy neighbors running around making accusations is going to be a good thing? This is Fascism! I am a Christians and a conservative who is also a History scholar this is FASCISM/Communism(take your pick) at it's heart. This is the KGB, and the Stazi all rolled into one. This is what our forefathers REPEATEDLY warned us about! this is the kind of stuff the British crown was doing to spur war. YOUR CHILDREN HAVE TO GROW UP HERE! mark my words all of you who are cheering this insanity on will get bit in the behind by it. You will be the ones in FEMA camps. I will die a free man!!!

RE: Posted by: kimoco | Jul 25, 2007 8:50:30 PM
and
Posted by: Awake | Jul 25, 2007 10:30:23 PM

Your post is exactly why America -and for that matter the West-are well on the way to losing this war: No sense of national unity. Your thought "I have no more chance of dying in a bathtub than in a terror attack"...while this might be true, don't you care about your fellow citizens and their chances? Maybe your city won't be hit, but another will.

This is not only an American security issue - look at Britian, Spain, Morocco, Turkey...the list goes on.

Do you just want to sink into a nice hot bath while the world around you explodes?

By the way, I would bet my next paycheck that the next terror attack is conducted by Muslims...

What I would like to know is when did the investigation of crime turn to the prevention of crime? Ask any police officer and they will tell you they are not there to protect you, they are there to apprehend the individual that caused you harm and subject that person to the laws on the books. Most C.I.'s are only doing it to get a lesser sentence, or money, perhaps both. I have been told that C.I.'s can make about a $1000 for busting a crack dealer which while it is good to bust crack dealers, what do you think the C.I. spent the money on, buying from another crack dealer would be a real good guess. Several years ago where I live we had crack dealers informing on other crack dealers to cut down the competition. A C.I. is going to say exactly what his/her handler wants him to say, true or false, and could lead to the government being fed false information allowing massive resources being directed to say the West Coast, while the East Coast gets blown sky high. And C.I.'s can and usually do have to appear in court, 5th Amendment, right to confront your accusers, and where the government, local, state, or federal, does not reveal the C.I. 99% of the time the case is dismissed and the person is freed. It would be more appropriate for the FBI to properly train and equip their own agents to infiltrate suspected groups and stop them before they can cause damage. As for those on here who want to sign up to become C.I.'s why don't you just become a real professional paid law enforcement officer?

This could actually be a great opportunity for brave citizens to spy on the corruption within the FBI and report back to ordinary citizens on their findings. Turn the tables on them. Ready to report for duty, sir!

What is this?..Communist Russia?...The KGB has informants to spy on their neighbors and let them know of anything suspicious, or saying anything against the Kremlin...communisum dead?...well now its here in our country....Welcome to Amerika.

This is great- let it roll!!!
This really does signify the end. As we all should know, every fascist enterprise ends in collapse, albeit after causing copious amounts of death, destruction and misery. And true, the timing couldn't be worse, for humanity as a whole, as we confront such enormous threats to our continued survival which make the 'threat' of 'terrorism' pale so very much by comparison.

Why of course! Lets do the FBI's job
for them. After all, they certainly don't
listen to THEIR OWN AGENTS! Remember
Cynthia Rowley? She tried to warn her
bosses at FBI H.Q. that Muslims were
learning how to fly planes but weren't
really interested in learning how to
land them.And we will have plenty of
people to inform on, after all the
freaking borders are WIDE OPEN! You
know the Germans had a name for these
people. They called them the Gestapo!

Those of you who are willing to give up your freedom and liberty for safety deserve neither. Those of you who are willing to kill foreigners who have done nothing to you or your family should pack up your family and your bank account and fly first class to Iraq.

What a waste of money.
Bush does not have the guts to close the borders while we are at war, so he spies on Americans.
I am being watched, and I just laugh about it.
I will continue to tell the truth!
There is nothing they can do about it.

George Vreeland Hill

To anyone who thinks this is a good idea, think of anyone who has an axe to grind with you and could report you for some made-up crime. With no trial necessary for 'terrorists' you could be on your way to Guantanamo, and your friends and family don't have to be notified. You would just disappear. It happened in Nazi Germany, it has already happened here in the U.S. It can happen to you, now.

this sux totally!!! this smacks of the chilean secret police circa pinochet

Excellent!!! It is about time the America's form a security force that is as obvious as the (F)ederal (B)oyscout (I)ntermediaries that most low life scum bags scan spot a mile away. All other modern countries have some sort of on the street /in the trenches human intelligence gathering capabilities. I have never understood why the US thought just good old electronics and a couple of regular beat cops would be enough to stop terrorism or organized crime for that matter.

This is such a "slice" to read; truly a meeting of the entire psyche of Murka.

Left out is the FACT that under the War on Drugs this has ALL been going on since 1993. PAID INFORMANTS, rewarded for fingering people to get them deported or jailed using ATF/INS people to bribe and/or threaten people in the US to INFORM. Yes. All it has done is cause misery and suffering for those it wounded in its zeal and dishonesty. It happened to ME, so I know. Once you are "fingered" by said informers (who were my neighbors who were alcoholic, btw) and the government boyz have had their day/way, the rest of your entire days on earth are HELL. It is one bloody ripoff. Ever wonder what happens to these people who get deported ...? or worse ...? The timing of this "announcement" is strategic.

Lots of psychos have already signed statements that they are willing to shoot their fellow Murkans .. psychos, orphans, widows, skinheads, prisoners (the usual lumpenproletariat so cleverly USED by Hitler) .. all without family ties. The just need this invisible army to make it SEEM like it is something new. It is not, it runs a quota system and has lots of people who get veteran's points to administer the tyranny. You will not get promoted if you do not meet the quota. The democrats and the repubs both have authorized ca$h for these programs for over a decade ...

Like the previous commenter posted, you have LESS chance of being killed by a terrorist than drowning in your bathtub or being hit by a drunk ... Think, think, think ....

Although there is room to express different skills, talents, techniques, tactics, strategies and technologies in the war against terrrosm, the USA wants a monopoly, where the US-government favors only its own ideas regardless of the fact that they are absolutely bankrupt. But the US-government use other countries, for instance, Pakistan as the scapegoat for all failures in the war against terrorism.

The terrorist use low, medium and high terrorist technologies to dodge the authorities. The terrorists who arrived recently in Los Angeles, Miami and Rome/Milano/Italy used this combination to navigate through the high-tech security network.

Benny

I remember once long ago
that it was the communists
who were going to take away
our freedom. Who need communists
when we have the Bushies?

To complete the post/quote above (Jul 25, 2007 10:18:38 PM) that was cut off in the posting process:

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as pardise."

- Adolf Hitler -
German chancellor, Nazi leader
"Mein Kampf," c. 1925-1926

Where do I sign-up? I can speak German and Spanish to a great deal of fluency.

Sweet, we get a Ministry of State Security full of pseudo-law enforcement, no accountability and free to abuse innocent citizens. Shield and Sword of the Party! Let's have a Stasi block party!! If the ice cream man sits outside my house too long playing annoying music...BAM! Call him in and have him taken away for terrorism. Neighbor sprays too much grassing clippings on my driveway...BAM!! Take him away for terrorism. Where can I sign up! But seriously, this is a sick, deranged idea.

Uh Oh! I hope an ex-girlfriend doesn't have an ax to grind! I might end up taken away at 3am some day!

This is remarkable! To all of the people that support this: your village is missing its idiot! The last thing you want is to give the government more power than it already has, especially when it involves someone pointing the finger at you merely on a suspicion. Why doesnt anyone just say it? This is like installing the foundations of the SS. Wake up you dopes. This has nothing to do with liberals or conservatives but with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I thought we were fighting them over THERE so we don't have to fight them HERE.

Ref: FBI wanting informants, or stool pigeons.

My daughter and I reported to the FBI & ICE the exact location, and statistics of Mexican illegal immigrants involved in drugs. They did nothing to arrest or finds these people after we did everything they asked us to help them do--NOTHING!!! Never again.

The Wayne Madsen Report brought me here.If Wayne Madsen thinks that this story is alarming, then it gets scary real fast.

Big D, your Osama comment is chilling. As much as I loathe bin Laden, he has been right on his predictions and his strategy.

The big showdown is on its way between the neo conservatives who back a Unitary Executive (dictator), and the small "d" democrats who are trying to preserve the three coequal branches.

When bush invaded Iraq, he was completing what his father started. Now we find that his grand father, along with captains of industry were plotting a coup against FDR so they can install a fascist style government (ref BBC). Now it appears GWB is intent on finishing what his grandfather started but didn't finish.

Remember Bush said he wanted to be "the dictator."

Remember the American Protective League (circa World War One).

Sounds to me like a volunteer fire department.

I can only imagine how many people would actually think they're doing their country a service, rather than playing right into the hands of our leaders by eroding our civil liberties.

Sign-up you "sheeple!" You true patriots you!

"Pedal to Medal?" Is that what this is really about? Turning in anti-war activists for to get a medal? Maybe these folks need a chest to pin it on first!

The Gestapo is alive and well, and just like J. Edgar and his sex offenders who were "exempt" from prosecution because they used their mob safe-houses in Cuba for their dirty deeds, the PTB will always use these "safeguards" to cement their own personal power first. Anyone who still believes that Iraq had anything to do with 911 is a fool believing a fool's fairy tale.

Funny how folks call us conspiracy theorists and crazy liberals. Have anyone of U really looked at the evidence? Not the stuff on Foxnews or CNN. the stuff they dont want to show U. As a challenge to all "patriots" Watch Loose Change and America:Freedom to fascism. OPEN your eyes people. The world is changing big time and folks are not paying attention. Bush WILL have another 9-11. Mark my words. And if this happends are we to belive is a terrible laps in security? How could this happen with the patriot act and what not? you'll be asking. and the truth is that the illuminati needs another 9-11 to envoke martial law. U dont have to belive..but when it happens..will U then? Or will U surrender ur freedoms and beg the gov'mt to protect U? Or will U start to ask questions and demand awnser. God Bless America.=)

People educate yourselves and come to your own conclusions.This is just the beggining.

When my father sent me this news from a different website, I thought it could not be true. I cannot believe it is true. Americans are getting what they deserve, though. We are asleep at the wheel. There is a total lack of outrage. We're going to wake up one day and find that all our civil rights are gone. We're going to be arrested for speaking out or attending demonstrations. All the freedoms we enjoy will have evaporated. This is absolutely horrifying!

I dust off the picture of our dear leader every day so I shouldn't have any problem with informants. Beside I gather my entire family to contemplate the radiant countenance of our dear leader whose face shines upon our home, long live our dear leader.

What Terrorists? The only terrorsists posing a danger to the USA are in the Whitehouse. There are some seriously deluded and uninformed people posting here. 9/11 was an inside job... this isn't a slogan... its proven. You need to actually investigate the evidence... there is no doubt... it would stand up in court on multiple counts. Have any of you actually looked at the architects sites or the many other experts in their fields that have analysed the data and found out the truth? STOP believing the media... they are lying to you. Now instead of prattling obviously non-informed garbage... go take a proper look, because everyone who does look realises something is very very ammiss with so called 'Official Accounts' and not just on 9/11 either.

I wonder if anyone understands that this has already been implemented.

Any American who supports this should move to North Korea. As a TRUE AMERICAN, I will not give up ANY FREEDOM for security!

The FBI is taking cues from the CIA to recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort to boost its (Spying on Americans) intelligence (how could call that intelligence?) capabilities (based on pure arbitrary information to fill the RED and BLUE files of Americans to be set to Death and Detention camps...).

Funny thing is, with all this Security and terrorists, who feels safer walking around an American metropolitan area now than 10 or 20 years ago? If 50% of us live in urban areas, and gangs terrorize all of us in every urban space, what difference does it make what they're wasting on humint? We should be asking with a united voice: why hasn't the beefed-up FBI shut down some of these extremely visible, highly armed, totally deranged and drug-addicted terrorist gangs?

Interesting that many point out that we are in a war, yet don't seem to be interested in dying themselves. What, soldiers supposed to do ALL the dying in the war on terror? I agree with the person who said they won't give up freedom for security... pretty consistent with our founders, who dealt with similar issues with British troops on our soil. If we're fighting the Islamofascists over "freedom" and we lose ours to beat them, what was the point?

Doug

Yes, they hate us for our freedoms so we must give up our freedoms so we can be safe. /sarcasm

Man, some of you "conservative" absolutely sicken me. Maybe you should turn off Fox news for a while and read the Constitution. Better yet, check out what the founding fathers and other wise men of history had to say about this kind of thing. Things like.

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Ben Franklin

or

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -James Madison

or

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." - Samuel Adams

Great. Now the Republicans can get spies to do even more undercover work on whatever is being done by U.S. attorneys to stop voter fraud, or get insider info on what Democratic members of congress are doing, so that the Republicans can always be one step ahead of the game. After all this is just one more piece in the puzzle toward a one party state.

Have you even tried calling a federal agency lately? Between not knowing who to transfer you to and not knowing anything period, PLEASE. If I say my neighbor is doing something strange, imagine the time and money spent investigating. No Way.

Why are so many people so willing to entrust our personal safety with the same government that failed to protect us in the first place?

Your mantra is "support the government unquestionlingly or be a coward"

It's ridiculous. These liberties must be preserved before we end up living in a country that's not worth protecting anyway.

As citizens of the United States we are part of the checks and balances system. It is our duty to always scrutnize and question government action. If it bears scrutiny- fine, if not- we must hold the government accountable.

I am sick and tired of being called a "lefty" or a liberal by the same chickenhawks that have never even OFFERED to make the sacrifices I have made for my country.

I hope you Busheviks live long enough to tell your grandchildren how you were once free, but your backing of The Surveillance State changed all that.

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." — THOMAS JEFFERSON (1791)

"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear, kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of 'grave national emergency.' Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it." -- General Douglas Macarthur, 1957

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” -- Edward Abbey

"Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both."
-- Eric Hoffer

What this amounts to is imitation of and adoption of the British system (M3?) without some big legislative proposal and endless unhelpful discussion.

This is nuts. "If you have nothing to hide then..." Don't fall for that. If this goes through, we'll be a nation of informants. Your nieghbor got a promotion while you got down-sized? The solution is simple: Inform on him. In love with a married woman who wont pay you the time of day? Inform on the husband; get him out of the way...Does the kid down the block consistently outplay your kid at football/hockey/baseball? Inform on the kid's parents...I don't like this. This is dangerous, a slippery slope. And for those of you who like to say "If you're not doin' anything wrong, if you've got nothing to hide..." What will you say when someone informs on you?

This is the American Stasi. Worried about al Qaeda setting off an attack in the US? Don't be. Bush is doing a better job of destroying America than they ever could. He is their best and most consistent agent of American destruction.

The time is coming when all people of good conscience will have to stand up to the government - in the streets if necessary - to take back the freedoms we relinquished in the name of security.

It sounds like the FBI thinks America should adopt the same practices employed by the East German secret police.

Let's see how we deal with this hypothetical..You're in mortal combat with an enemy who is perfectly willing to use suicide as a weapon...He has no rules of engagement..in fact no rulesat all. You on the other hand have volumes of "rules" you must obey...

An idiot can foretell the winner of that struggle.

Maybe they could help find the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq (I thought Rumsfeld knew where they were) or Osama Ben Laden (Rumsfeld showed us nice drawing of his imaginary hitech bunker we never found).

Is it McCarthy with his communist witch hunt that saved America from communism ? Nobody has proof that there's terrorist cells hidding everywhere in the US, but because of one event, 9/11, some people will believe anything the gov says like gospel. All the "terror cells" that were "busted" since 9/11 were revealed to be bogus and nobody has been put in jail after a real judiciary process so far. Will you turn your country into a police state because 19 mens from Saudi Arabia were able to knock down 3 buildings ? Gun violence kills about 10,000 people a year in the US, that's about 50,000 people since 2001.

The Bush administration is acting like if the danger of terrorism is greater than having 5000 soviet thermonuclear warhead aimed at you. The US can only be destroyed from inside. The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.

The Constitution is dead. Long live the Constitution.

Our forefathers are rolling in their graves.

Ugh.

How the hell did we disinigrate into a democracy? Most all the founders warned us to avoid tyranny of the masses,lets get back to the billof rights and constitutional rulewhere all people are equal in the eyes of the law and quit this retarded trusting of this govt to protect us,we are able to protect ourselves,Live free or die tryin"

How long will Americans continue to trade privacy and personal freedom for so called security?

Welcome to 1984.

So the FBI are getting informant recruitment training from the CIA? Given the effectiveness of most of that agencies sources wouldn't accounting training from Arthur Anderson be a better way to spend money?

As for all those who pretend this will protect them from terrorism (how? Surely everyone already reports genuinely suspicious things) I'd rather have 100 WTCs than one Aschwitz.

Notice how those that accuse others of being cowards are the same ones who are wetting their pants so bad they want to bring in a police State? The chance of dying by the actions of terrorists in America is and will continue to be less than the chances of dying due to the actions of government. But loser wimps like those who cry "coward" are too ignorant to know that.

What we really need is a citizen's group in each town and city in America comprised of loyal Americans (who have a had a background check). They should work with local law enforcement and have weekly or monthly meetings to collectively discuss possible problems in their community. The authorities can't be everywhere but this type of people power nation wide is our only hope of securing our country. There is nothing in place like that now but it is a solution that just might work.

Sure a lot of gutless cowards posting here...."take our freedom....just promise us more security....". And they have the nerve to call themselves our countrymen. americans every one...

Reading these comments I sense that a new civil war is brewing...

But if it doesn't transpire before George III leaves his throne (indeed George W Bush is the 3rd U.S. President to be named George), I predict that when Queen Hillary assumes the throne, which her predecessor has had reinforced with virtually dictatorial powers, when the tables are turned, all of the Bush-ites on this thread saying "good idea this American Stasi" will then be picking up their guns and pointing them right back at the tyrannical feds with their librul informant traitors.... just as they did under the former Clinton monarch.

It's time to see the tweedle-dee/ tweedle-dum charade for what it is.... We don't need another civil war, we need a Second American Revolution.

There is a growing level of hysterical paranoia in much of what I read concerning the perceived journey our nation is slowly moving towards becoming a fascist state. WHAT BALONEY!! Iraq is a mess, Bush has been a terrible President and the economy does not look good but I'm afraid that we only have ourselves to blame- Congress, Bush, Clinton, Obama and the others we look towards for solutions are only a reflection of ourselves.

Look around and notice that despite the rhetoric our liberties are in tact and except for the occasional snafu we do what we want, we work where we want, we live where we want, we associate with who we want, we go where we want, we think what we want and, in case no one has noticed, we protest what we want without going to concentration camps. Bush is dumb, but he is not Hitler either.

The false bravado of rallying around the FBI with comments like "Where do I sign up" is evident. People running around like chicken littles willing to sacrifice everybody's liberties to placate their fears.

Those are the true cowards - those who tremble at the rustling of a leaf. Oh, how fear is such a powerful weapon, especially in the hands of those who parade their willingness to protect us at the price of chains.

Is this the kind of society you are willing to go to war for? Is this what you are fighting for? Does anybody with any cursory reading of history under their belt believe that government will surrender power?

I'm amazed at how many of the comments portray this as an invasion of privacy or civil rights. This is nothing new in FBI practices and well within the scope of prudent law enforcement. The FBI has made effective use of informants and confidential sources throughout its history. How do you think the FBI has successfully solved nearly every major investigation, saving lives and millions of dollars from being lost by law abiding US Citizens? It has been with the cooperation of private citizens, some of which require confidentiality to preserve their lives. Perhaps, with better informant coverage, having insight from the inside, the US would have identified 9/11 during the planning stages.

Anyone who thinks that this is a good idea would have made a hell of a good Nazi!

Americans informing on Americans? Children informing on their parents? Friends informing on friends?

Should GWB/Cheney & Company want so badly to head a Dictatorship, let them go back in time and join forces with Adolf Hitler.

This is an sick abomination of an idea!

Anyone remember the "Nightwatch" that was set up for the same purpose on Babylon 5?

Yeah, I'm sure this'll work out the same.

Those who surrender liberty for security will have neither. --- Benjamin Franklin

How do I sign up?

THIS COUNTRY WILL BECOME SLAVES TO THOSE WITH MONEY AND POWER. AND YOU WILL NOT SEE IT UNTILL IT IS TOO LATE

I am very much for it, but only if it will be done without excessive legislative bureaucracy and hate for a neighbor. Otherwise, it would only be a repetition of the Stalin's Russia when millions of innocent people were killed or sent to GULAG.

I would like to know when the people of this country were indoctrinated with the idea that is is the government's job to protect the people. Fifty years ago, this was the mentality of the institutionalized - not the general public. This is *NOT* the purpose of our government (maybe communist Russia of the past). Read the U.S. constitution. They are to print money (which they don't); they are to protect our borders (which they don't); they are to protect our *rights* (which they are currently doing the opposite)

I'm not surprised or scared that this administration would do this. I am surprised and very scared that there are so many americans who are ok with it. You people scare the crap out of me. Maybe I'll call the FBI and let them know how much YOU scare me.

This is utterly horrifying. Will turning into East Germany make us any safer, especially with the borders wide open? All you had better consider that whatever mechanisms Bush puts in place will also be used by Hillary. Keep in mind that the ACLU will make sure that whatever mechanism the FBI puts in place cannot be used against protected groups such as illegal aliens or Muslim sleeper cells. Do you welcome political persecutions? Will they make you feel safer?

Well, I agree with everyone. Does everyone agree with me? In 1856 the USA turned down the gospel of Jesus Christ and now we are in the judgement with the jaws of slavery tightning rapidly. What to do? Get into Christ if you feel the pull. There is no escape as a nation against God.

Gerald

I agree with Vic, why can't we finally just label the enemy? Islam! Islam is a militaristic, political ideology hiding behind the label of 'religion' and thereby afforded protections it should not have. Any other organization in this country espousing and teaching what the Quran teaches would be outlawed in seconds. Until we can label the enemy, we have no hope to fight it. If you don't believe me, just pick up an English version of the Quran. Read it yourself.

People believe fire took down the twin towers. They treat the public like cattle. Why? Because conditioning works. You may be offended by how freedoms are slipping away in the US, but future generations will have no idea what you are talking about.

The FBI is spineless cowardly criminal organization who hates America and they will stop at nothing to prevent America from moving forward with 21st Century liberties. End the war on drugs!!! Reduce the age of sexual consent!!! Destroy espionage of all kinds!!! Put the Taxpayers above the government!!! We are the law, not them!!!

What a good idea! I hope they pay good money. I need a job with health insurance and benefits. Does anyone know where we'll be able apply? And will they or will I have to pay for my armband, club, and handcuffs? I'd also like to know if they'll let us carry firearms. Somehow I knew all along that my previous experience being a sneak and a snitch and a stooge and a voyeur would pay off someday.